Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against
Women

Fifth periodic report of States parties*

Germany**

* For the initial report submitted by the Government
of Germany, see CEDAW/C/5/Add.59 and Add.59/Corr.1; for its consideration by
the
Committee, see CEDAW/C/SR.152, CEDAW/C/SR.157 and Official Records of the
General Assembly, Forty-fifth Session, Supplement No. 38 (A/45/38), paras.
51-92. For the combined second and third and fourth periodic reports submitted
by the Government of Germany see
CEDAW/C/DEU/2-3 and CEDAW/C/DEU/4; for its
consideration by the Committee, see CEDAW/C/SR.464 and 465 and Official
Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-fifth Session, Supplement No. 38
(A/55/38).

** The present document is being issued without formal editing.

Contents

IntroductionStatement
on the Consideration of Reports of the Committee for the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women

Table 4.2.3 Trainees with newly concluded training contract 2001 in the ten
most common training occupations

Table 4.2.4 Trainees by Länder (dual system)

Table 4.2.5 School pre-training of trainees with newly-concluded training
contract 1996 and 2001

Table 4.2.6 Male and female pupils at vocational schools in the dual system
by age

Table 4.3.1 Proportion of female students among those studying in the first
university semester at higher education institutions

Table 4.3.2 Proportion of female students among those studying at higher
education institutions

Table 4.3.3 Germans taking up studies in the first higher education
institution in the first semester (winter semester) at universities
by groups of
subjects in %

Table 4.3.4 Germans taking up studies in the first university semester
(winter semester) at Technical Colleges by groups of subjects
- proportion of
females among total

Table 4.4 Women in education and science 2000 total

Appendix II: Overview of measures carried out since
1998 to realise the concept of equal rights

1. Statutes

2. Other measures and events with relevance in terms of policy on equal
rights

(since May 1998)

3. Measures carried out by the Länder equality agencies

3.1 Focus of work

3.2 General and specific measures and programmes

4. Publications of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior
Citizens, Women and Youth on equality policy topics

4.1 Series of publications of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior
Citizens, Women and Youth

4.2 Brochures, reports, documentation and material on the equality policy of
the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens,
Women and Youth

5. Publications of other Federal Ministries and agencies on
equality-related topics

Appendix III: Consideration of reports by the Committee on the Elimination
of Discrimination against Women dated 1 February 2000

Introduction

In April 1985, the Federal Republic of Germany ratified the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
dated 18 December 1979.
The Convention entered into force for the Federal Republic of Germany on
9 August 1985 (Federal Law Gazette
[BGBl.] Part II, p. 1234). The
Convention was agreed to with the proviso that Article 7
subparagraph (b) of the Convention would
not be applicable insofar as it is
contradictory to Article 12 a para. 4 second sentence of the Basic Law
for the Federal Republic
of Germany (Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik
Deutschland) (women "may on no account render service involving the use of
arms").

By means of the amendment of Article 12a para. 4 second sentence of
the Basic Law, which entered into force on 23 December 2000 (Federal
Law
Gazette Part I p. 1755), the voluntary service of women involving the
use of arms in the Federal Armed Forces was placed on a
clear constitutional
footing, and women were given access to all areas of the armed forces. The
Federal Republic of Germany hence
declared on 10 December 2001 the withdrawal of
the reservation to Article 7 subparagraph (b) in accordance with
Article 28 paragraph
3 first sentence of the Convention.

In March 1988, the Federal Republic of Germany submitted its First Report on
the Implementation of the Convention, in accordance with
Article 18 of the
Convention (U.N. Doc. CEDAW/5/Add. 59). In January 1990, the Federal
Republic of Germany submitted an update and
supplement to this report in
preparation of its examination by the 9th session of the Committee for the
Elimination of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW/C/5/Add.59/Amend. 1).

The Federal Republic of Germany submitted its Second and Third Reports in
accordance with Article 18 of the Convention (U.N. Doc.
CEDAW/C/DEU/2-3) in the
autumn of 1996. In this context, it took advantage of the possibility permitted
by the CEDAW Committee of
combining two reports, in order to cover a longer
period of time. This allowed special consideration to be given to the changes
resulting
from the unification of Germany. This report is based on the First
Report and describes the further development of equal rights in
Germany since
1990 with a view to the individual Articles of the Convention.

The Federal Republic of Germany updated the Second and Third Reports by
virtue of its Fourth National Report from 1998, the structure
and presentation
of the Second and Third Reports having largely been retained.

The Federal Republic of Germany ratified the Optional Protocol to the United
Nations CEDAW Convention on 15 January 2002. The Optional
Protocol entered
into force for the Federal Republic of Germany on 15 April 2002, three
months after the ratification charter was
deposited.

The Federal Republic of Germany herewith submits its Fifth National Report
pursuant to Article 18 of the Convention. It is an updated
version of the
Fourth Report, and repetitions have been dispensed with. All the reports should
therefore be consulted together with
the present report in order to obtain a
better understanding of the developments as a whole.

Statement on the Consideration of Reports of the Committee for the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women

The Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women considered
the combined second and third periodic reports and the
fourth periodic report of
Federal Republic of Germany (CEDAW/C/DEU/2-3 and 4) at its 464th and 465th
sessions, held on 1 February
2000.

In addition to the positive aspects, which were in particular described in
paragraphs 11 to 17, in paragraphs 19 to 46 the Committee
also
highlighted existing problems and gave recommendations.

In accordance with the Committee's recommendations, an attempt is made in
this Report to go beyond the description and to analyse
and evaluate more
strongly the measures implemented to eliminate discrimination against women from
all areas of their lives.

Re the individual paragraphs:

Re paragraphs 3 and 17:

The representative underlined that on 10 December 1999, Germany had signed
the Optional Protocol to the Convention. The ratification
process would be
initiated in 2000, together with acceptance of the amendment to article 20,
paragraph 1, of the Convention. In the
light of the recent decision of the
European Court of Justice on Germany's prohibition that women bear arms, Germany
would assess
its reservation to article 7, subparagraph (b) of the
Convention.

The Committee notes that the Government, in assessing the implication of a
decision of the European Court of Justice concerning the
role of women in the
German armed forces, will evaluate its reservation to article 7, subparagraph b,
of the Convention.

The Convention dated 18 December 1979 on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) entered into force under
international law
on 3 September 1981 and in Germany on 9 August 1985. It is one of the
fundamental legal instruments in the field
of human rights for women. The
following reservation was declared in Article 1 of the Act on the
Convention to the CEDAW dated 25
April 1985:

• The ... Convention ... is herewith consented to with the proviso that
Article 7,Subparagraph b of the Convention would not
be applicable insofar
as it is contradictory to Article 12 a, para. 4, second sentence
of the Basic Law.

The representative of the Federal Republic has already declared at the
session held on 1 February 2000 that Germany will evaluate
the reservation
to Article 7 subparagraph (b) of the Convention with regard to the decision
of the European Court of Justice.

Following on from the ruling of the European Court of Justice dated
11 January 2000 in case No. C285/98 (Tanja Kreil) Article 12a
para. 4 second sentence of the Basic Law was amended by Act dated
19 December 2000 such that women may now "on no account be obliged
to
render service involving the use of arms". With this amendment of the Basic Law,
as well as subordinate statutory provisions and
legal ordinances, Parliament has
placed the voluntary service of women involving the use of arms on a clear
constitutional and statutory
footing. Restrictions previously applying to women
limiting them to deployment in the medical corps and in the military music
service
have been rescinded. Now, therefore, women may volunteer to serve in the
German armed forces as professional or regular soldiers,
or on the basis of a
voluntary undertaking to perform individual services, such as exercises in
peacetime and special deployment
abroad. The amendment to the Constitution
serves to create equal opportunities for women in the armed forces.

The reservation to Article 7 subparagraph (b) of the Convention has
become obsolete because of the equal rights of access for women
to the armed
forces that have now been created. The Federal Republic of Germany has withdrawn
the reservation with effect as on 10
December 2001.

Re paragraphs 21 and 22:

The Committee is concerned that, although a series of measures has been
adopted, the implementation of the Convention for women living
in the new
Länder continues to lag behind that with regard to those living in the old
Länder. It is concerned that women
in the new Länder used to enjoy
full employment but now account for 20.7 per cent of the unemployed. That is a
disproportionately
high percentage compared to that of unemployed men in the new
Länder as well as to the overall unemployment rate of women in
Germany.

The Committee urges the Government to continue its targeted efforts to
improve the situation of women in the new Länder in the
area of work and
employment, as well as their overall social well-being.

The urging of the Committee to initiate targeted measures to improve the
situation of women in the new Länder in the areas of
work and employment
was met in the period under report with many measures of active labour market
policy, such as the Job AQTIV Act
(cf. Part I, 3.4.7).

One should however bear in mind in this context that the virtually complete
collapse of the economy in the former GDR after Reunification
continues to have
major consequences for the situation on the labour market and employment of both
women and men. Thus, the state-controlled
labour market in the former GDR led to
the almost complete integration of women, there was a high degree of acceptance
within society,
but there was also the economic requirement for women to work.
At the same time, a state network of crèches and care facilities
made it
possible to reconcile family and work.

Re para. 23:

The Committee is concerned that the programmes, laws and policies
introduced by the Government have failed to ensure that the Constitutional
obligation to promote the implementation of de facto equality for women is
understood as a societal responsibility and achieved in
practice.

The Committee's concern can be met in that the situation has considerably
improved since the last CEDAW Report as a result of the
statutory and other
initiatives in the period under report. The call for de facto equality for women
and men is provided for constitutionally
by Article 3 para. 2 second
sentence of the Basic Law and is accordingly implemented in reality.

Re para. 24:

The Committee urges the Government to take measures to ensure that public
officials, including law enforcement officials, contribute
to the realization of
this principle in the entire territory of the country. It urges the Government
to ensure that tertiary and
continuing legal education of lawyers and the
judiciary adequately covers the evolving understanding of equality and
non-discrimination
and international norms and standards in that regard. It also
urges the Government to ensure the availability of effective domestic
remedies
and their accessibility to women, especially in the light of the pending entry
into force of the Optional Protocol to the
Convention. It also encourages the
Government to refer directly to the Convention in its legislative, policy and
programmatic initiatives,
since the Convention is legally binding and such use
would increase awareness of the international commitments entered into by the
State party.

Amongst other things, the Committee touched on the problem of continuing
education of lawyers on the topic of equality and non-discrimination
of women.
In accordance with section 43a subsection 6 of the Federal Code of
Lawyers (Bundesrechtsanwaltsordnung - BRAO) lawyers
are obliged to undergo
continuing education.

The following applies to specialist lawyers (section 43c of the Federal
Code of Lawyers): Anyone using the designation of a specialist
lawyer must
attend at least one further training event in this specialist area per year,
either as a lecturer or a participant. The
total duration of the further
training may not be less than ten hours. Lawyers must provide documentation of
such to the bar association
without being requested to do so (section 15 of
the Specialist Lawyers Code [Fachanwaltsordnung]). Permission to use the
designation
as a specialist lawyer may be withdrawn if this further training
prescribed in the professional code is omitted (section 43c
subsection
4 second sentence of the Federal Code of Lawyers).

As to the basic duty to undergo further training (section 43a
subsection 6 of the Federal Code of Lawyers) the Legal Committee of
the
German Federal Parliament has stated that there is "no indication that this duty
should be regulated in greater detail by the
professional code because the
individual lawyer should not be dictated to in deciding how to comply with this
professional duty."
(ruling recommendation and report, Federal Parliament
printed paper [BT-Drs.] 12/7656, p. 50, re No. 25 (section 59b of the
Federal
Code of Lawyers).

There are no definitions under professional law regarding the areas or topics
in which lawyers must undergo further training. They
would indeed be virtually
impossible. Under civil law, lawyers are obliged to undergo further training
such that they are able to
take the proper care necessary in communications
(section 276 of the Civil Code).

The task of the Federal Bar Association (BRAK) is to promote the vocational
further training of lawyers (section 177 subsection 2
No. 6 of the
Federal Code of Lawyers). The Federal Bar Association supports for instance the
"German Lawyers Institute" in its further
training tasks. Lawyers' associations,
in particular the German Bar Association, and other private suppliers of further
training
for lawyers, supplement the range of events offered.

In the judicial field, and in particular in the judiciary, as mentioned by
the Committee, amongst other things a wide range of further
training is offered
on the topic of equality and non-discrimination against women. In particular,
the German Judges Academy, which
is supported and funded by the Federation and
the Länder together, and which serves the purpose of national further
training
of judges of all branches of the court system, as well as public
prosecutors, runs annual conferences on this group of topics.

For instance, for several years, several conferences at the German Judges
Academy have dealt regularly with the problem of "Women
in the judiciary" and
"Women before the judiciary". But conferences on labour law, such as "European
law in labour law practice",
"Current problems of labour law" and "Labour Law
Employment Promotion Act and other topical questions related to labour law" also
tackle questions related to the equality and non-discrimination of women.

Furthermore, seminars are offered at the German Judges Academy on "Coping
with stress at work" which draw attention to the special
situation of women
between work and family, and also help to bring this conflict closer to a
solution.

The matter of the status of women within society and within the family is the
topic of a large number of conferences on family law
problems. In addition,
conferences with European partners increasingly deal with this group of topics,
such as the Polish-German
conference held in 2000 on the topic of "Protection of
the family" and the Turkish-German conference held in October 2001.

Re para. 25:

The Committee expresses its concern at the continuing disadvantages women
face in many aspects of work and the economy. In particular,
the Committee is
concerned at the persistence of the wage gap between women and men,
notwithstanding women's high educational achievements,
with women earning on
average 77 per cent of men's earnings. It is concerned that, in 1997, although
women accounted for 42.1 per
cent of the gainfully employed population, they
comprised 88 per cent of the persons working in part-time employment and 55.9
per
cent of the unemployed. The Committee is concerned that those differences
are indicative of the persistence of indirect discrimination
against women in
the labour market. It is also concerned that part-time work tends to be in
low-skilled employment, offering fewer
opportunities for professional
advancement.

Regarding the concerns of the Committee as to disadvantages existing for
women in many aspects of work and the economy, reference
is made to the
information provided in section I 3.4 of the present Report and to the
updated table 3.4 (in the Appendix). The following
can be stated in addition to
this:

The number of part-time employees subject to social insurance increased
between 1977 and 2000 by 8% to 3,925,690. The proportion of
part-time staff as
against all employees subject to social insurance was hence 14.1%. Part-time
working is still a domain of women,
who accounted for 86% of all part-time
employees in 2000. Trends in recent years however show that part-time working is
increasingly
a conceivable form of working hours also for men. Whilst the number
of part-time women workers rose by only almost 4% between 1997
and 2000, the
growth in the number of part-time male workers was 46 %. One may anticipate that
this development will increase further
as a result of the Act on Part-Time
Working and Fixed-Term Employment Contracts (Gesetz über Teilzeitarbeit und
befristete Arbeitsverträge),
which entered into force on 1 January
2001. In addition to its labour market policy significance to ensure and
increase employment,
the goal of the Act, which gives male and female employees
a right to part-time working is to enable both women and men, to the same
degree, to more efficiently reconcile family and work and to better implement
their individual plans. The provisions hence promote
equal opportunities between
women and men.

Re para. 26:

The Committee calls on the Government to ensure that the definition of
discrimination contained in article 1 of the Convention, in
particular the
Convention's prohibition of indirect discrimination, is fully integrated into
its legislation, especially its labour
legislation. In this regard, it welcomes
the Government's intention to prepare a report on equal pay which will examine
the primary
causes of wage discrimination. The Committee calls on the State
party to examine existing formulae for the determination of equal
work and work
of equal value, with a view to developing guidelines or directives to assist the
partners in collective wage bargaining
in determining comparable wage structures
in sectors dominated by women. The Committee urges the Government to monitor
closely the
impact of its new programme on women and work so as to ensure that
it achieves its stated aims of advancing equal opportunities of
women and men in
the working world and in the family and does not perpetuate gender
stereotypes.

The Committee's call for the full integration into German legislation,
especially its labour legislation, of the definition of discrimination
contained
in Article 1 of the Convention, in particular the Convention's prohibition
of indirect discrimination, has been met.

Integration of the definition of (direct and indirect) discrimination into
labour legislation will take place in the context of the
implementation of the
Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council Amending Council
Directive 76/207/EEC on the implementation
of the principle of equal treatment
for men and women as regards access to employment, vocational training and
promotion, and working
conditions.

Currently, in the Federal Republic of Germany the Act to Prevent
Discrimination in Civil Law (Gesetz zur Verhinderung von Diskriminierungen
im
Zivilrecht) is being drafted, and is concerned to provide a clear signal against
discrimination also in civil law legal transactions.
For this, similar to
Art. 13 of the EC Treaty, discrimination prohibitions are expressly written
in, including the prohibition of
discrimination based on gender. Additionally,
civil law tools are to be introduced in order to guarantee the implementation of
these
discrimination prohibitions.

The "Women and work" programme is not a one-off, time-limited programme, but
an ongoing one which is regularly examined and continued.
The core of the
programme is the integration of equality policy as an ongoing task in all policy
areas and task areas of the Federal
Government within the meaning of "gender
mainstreaming". Now the programme has run for four years, all measures have been
implemented
or successfully launched. In addition to the legislative measures
described in Part I 2, this includes amongst other things the first
comprehensive wage and income report with which the Federal Government
emphasises its intention to make its best contribution towards
reducing the wage
gap between women and men. The programme is described in detail in Part II
of the present Report, 11.5.1, whilst
the report is dealt with at
I, 3.4.12.

Re para. 27:

The Committee expresses its concern at the persistence of stereotypical
and traditional attitudes about the roles and responsibilities
of women and men
in private and in public life. The Committee notes that that persistence is
reflected in women's predominance in
part-time work, their main responsibility
for family and caring work, occupational segregation, men's extremely low
participation
in child-raising leave, at 1.5 per cent of those taking
child-raising leave in 1997, and the taxation of married couples. The Committee
is concerned that measures aimed at the reconciliation of family and work
entrench stereotypical expectations for women and men.
In that regard, the
Committee is concerned at the unmet need for kindergarten places for the 0-3 age
group, that the proportion of
all-day kindergartens was only 34.8 per cent in
1994 and that childcare centres were available for only 5.1 per cent of
school-age
children, especially since all-day schools are the exception in
Germany.

In this connection, reference should be made to the appropriate measures
which the Federal Republic of Germany has taken in the period
since the Fourth
Report was submitted and which are listed in detail in Chapter I of the
Report. The Committee mentioned women's
predominance in part-time work and
evaluated it negatively. It should be stated in this regard that the new Act on
Part-Time Working
and Fixed-Term Employment Contracts, which has been in force
since January 2001, creates considerable advantages for part-time employees.
For
instance, this Act contains an express ban on discrimination against part-time
employees. It grants all employees on principle
a right to part-time working in
all vocational groups, including with qualified work and in senior positions.
This applies equally
to men and women.

This step is intended to increase the ratio of part-time workers, thereby
entailing advantages primarily to women – as well
as to men - in the
family phase, and hence improves the reconciliation of family and work.

The Committee's concern regarding a lack of kindergarten places has been
taken into account by means of far-reaching measures. This
has been discussed in
considerable detail in Part II at 11.5.1.

Re paragraphs 28 to 30:

The Committee urges the Government to study the impact of measures aimed
at reconciliation of work and family responsibilities so
as to create a firm
basis for policies and programmes that will accelerate change and eradicate
stereotypical attitudes. The Committee
urges the State party to develop more
programmes and policies targeted at men to accelerate the changing of attitudes
and behaviour.
It calls on the State party to consider the introduction of
non-transferable child-raising leave for fathers to increase the number
of men
that share responsibility for childcare and child-rearing. It urges the
Government to improve the availability of care places
for school-age children to
facilitate women's re-entry into the labour market. It also recommends that the
State party assess the
current legal provisions on the taxation of married
couples (“splitting”) and its impact on the perpetuation of
stereotypical
expectations for married women.

The Committee is concerned at the limited efforts and measures in place to
extend women's equal rights and equal opportunities into
the private
sector.

The Committee calls on the Government to increase its legislative and
regulatory efforts to ensure that women are protected against
all forms of
discrimination in the private sector and to increase measures aimed at achieving
de facto equality. It also encourages
the Government to intensify its
interaction with the private sector, including through incentives and other
non-legislative measures,
as well as with unions and with women's organizations
to achieve that goal.

The Committee calls on the Federal Republic of Germany to consider the
introduction of non-transferable child-raising leave for fathers
to increase the
number of men sharing responsibility for childcare. As stated in Part II of
the Report at 11.5.1, the new Federal
Child-Raising Benefit Act
(Bundeserziehungsgeldgesetz) promotes heavily the much stronger participation of
fathers in the new parental
leave (in the old child-raising leave (former
designation) the proportion of fathers averaged only 1.5 % over the years).
Parliament
has however deliberately refrained from complying with the
Committee's proposal. A regulation concerning non-transferable parental
leave
for fathers is not planned because in the interest of young parents Parliament
deliberately made the new parental leave more
flexible than the old
child-raising leave in order to give them as much scope as possible to plan
their personal parental leave.

The Federal Government will submit to the German Federal Parliament an
experience report on parental leave by mid-2004 containing
detailed descriptions
of the proportion of fathers involved, and where appropriate the necessary
consequences of their even greater
participation.

As to the other items broached in these paragraphs, reference is made to the
measures and legal initiatives which have been implemented
or initiated since
the last report was submitted and are dealt with in Parts I and II of
the Report.

Re para. 31:

The Committee is concerned at the often precarious social and economic
situation of foreign women living in Germany. It is also concerned
at the
incidences of xenophobic and racist attacks in the State party and notes the
vulnerabilities that foreign women can face on
the multiple grounds of sex,
ethnicity and race.

The fight against right-wing extremist and xenophobic tendencies is one of
the Federal Government's domestic policy priorities. In
the "Report on the
current and envisioned measures and activities of the Federal Government against
right-wing extremism, xenophobia,
anti-Semitism and violence" dated 14 May
2002, the Federal Government described appropriate measures and informed the
German Federal
Parliament of them. It takes all the measures it can in order to
prevent the dangers occurring from right-wing extremism and xenophobia
and to
suppress these movements. This includes both approaches to strengthen the civil
society and encourage people to stand up for
their own convictions, as well as
to promote integration, as well as measures targeting the offenders and their
environment. These
aspects have already been tackled in many ways and with a
variety of initiatives, particularly at the level of the Länder and
local
authorities. From the point of view of the Federal Government, especially the
activities carried out in situ offer the best
prospects for success.

Continually kept police statistics containing information on the gender, as
well as the ethnic origin of the victims of right-wing
orientated violence, is
at present incomplete. The Federation and the Länder have hence agreed from
1 January 2001 onwards to
collate politically-motivated criminal offences
in a new definition system entitled "Politically-motivated crime". Additionally,
a possibility to collate under the umbrella term "hate crime" has been created
which collates "xenophobic" and "anti-Semitic" criminal
offences as specific
sub-groups. This is to ensure that in the central collation criteria of
politically-motivated offences all facts
relevant to the survey –
including the gender of the offenders and the victims - are collated, evaluated
and reported to the
Federal Criminal Police office in the entire Federal
territory by the competent police units of the Länder in the context of
a
nationally-coordinated procedure on the basis of standard, clear criteria.

On 9 June 2002, the Federal Parliament adopted two initiatives to combat
anti-Semitism in Germany. These applications contain the
call to all citizens to
disapprove of and fight against anti-Semitism, and hence to strengthen social
cohesion in Germany.

Re para. 32:

Noting the Government's intention to commission a study on the living
situation and social integration of foreign women and girls,
the Committee
requests the Government to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the situation
of foreign women, including their
access to education and training, work and
work-related benefits, health care and social protection, and to provide such
information
in its next report. The Committee calls on the Government to improve
the collection of data and statistics disaggregated by sex and
race/ethnicity of
victims of violence motivated by xenophobia and racism, to put in place adequate
protection mechanisms and to ensure
that foreign women victims of such attacks
are made aware of their rights and have access to effective remedies. It also
urges the
Government to strengthen its efforts for the social integration of
foreign women through educational and employment services, and
through
awareness-raising of the population. It also recommends that steps be taken to
combat domestic violence and violence within
the family and to increase foreign
women's awareness about the availability of legal remedies and means of social
protection.

With the 2000 Sixth Family Report on the topic of "Families of foreign origin
in Germany – benefits, burdens, challenges", the
Federal Government
submitted for the first time a special report on the situation of families of
foreign origin which also portrays
differing aspects of the specific situation
of women in migration and in their integration into German society. The Report
dispels
widespread stereotypes and prejudices about "foreigners", in particular
also foreign women, and comprehensively portrays the differentiated
nature and
variety of the population of foreign origin without denying the existence of
problematic living conditions and obstacles
to the integration of immigrants.
The Report in its way hence makes a decisive contribution towards reducing these
stereotypes, in
particular those about foreign women.

The Report contains a large number of recommendations for the various levels
of political activity to implement more equal opportunities
and improved
integration of immigrant women and men and their families into German society.
The results and demands of the Sixth
Family Report form an important basis for
the policy of the Federal Government, which is geared towards controlling
immigration and
integrating immigrants.

Elderly female migrants in Germany were also given special attention in the
Federal Government's Sixth Family Report, whereby habits
in old age, their
education, their state of health and the possibilities of communication were
investigated.

The study on the situation of foreign girls and women is still running until
2003. The next Report will communicate the results and
conclusions.

Re para. 33:

The Committee, while welcoming the Government's action plan on violence
against women, is concerned at the remaining gaps in protecting
women against
violence in the family and in society.

Detailed information about the Action Plan of the Federal Government to
combat violence against women and the measures taken and initiatives
launched in
this context will be provided in the individual chapters of this Report, in
particular at II 5.3 and II 6. Reference
is made to this at this instance.

Re para. 34:

The Committee urges the Government to ensure the systematic implementation
of the plan and to monitor its impact in the areas of emphasis
identified in the
plan. In particular, the Committee recommends legislation and measures to ensure
that women victims of domestic
violence have immediate means of redress and
protection. It also calls on the Government to take measures aimed at creating
zero
tolerance for such violence, and to make it socially and morally
unacceptable. The Committee further recommends that measures be
taken to
sensitize the judiciary to all forms of violence against women that constitute
infringements of the human rights of women
under the Convention, particularly
taking into account the increased vulnerability of foreign women to such
violence.

Further training events on the topic of violence, such as violence against
women, violence in the family, violence against children
and young people, as
well as on organised crime, have for instance been part of the programme of the
German Judges Academy for several
years.

Several conferences are to be organised in 2002 by the Länder, such as
"Dealing with victims of sexual violence within criminal
proceedings, in
particular with children and young people", "Violence in the family
(criminological, family law and criminal law
aspects of a many-facetted topic)",
"Law, violence and aggression" and "Organised crime".

Regular, supra-topical conferences have been offered at the German Judges
Academy and followed with considerable interest, directly
or indirectly dealing
with these questions. Here, the German Judges Academy offers conferences not
only of a specifically legal nature,
but especially also with a social policy
orientation which as a rule are well attended. Violence in our society, and
hence also domestic
violence against women, is the subject of extensive
discussion there too.

The German Judges Academy keeps in touch with the chairwoman of the
Federation-Länder working party to combat domestic violence,
which is also
the contact for appropriate further training events, and which offers its
support when preparing conferences.

Re para. 35:

The Committee is concerned at the incidence of trafficking in women and
girls.

Significant progress has now been made in Germany through the work of a
national working party on the combat of trafficking in women.
It includes all
competent Ministries of the Federation, the Länder, the Federal Criminal
Police Office and non-governmental
organisations. The working party drafts
concrete measures to protect victims of trafficking in human beings. Such
supra-departmental
working parties have now also been founded in many Federal
Länder since the fight against trafficking in human beings can be
only
successfully implemented by means of close cooperation.

Important steps have been taken to improve the extremely difficult situation
faced by victims of trafficking in women. More information
is provided on this
in the text of the report. For this reason, the corresponding measures will only
be indicated here by key words:
The victims of trafficking in human beings are
no longer immediately deported, and they are afforded specific assistance to
prepare
them to leave from advice bureaux which have been specifically
established for this purpose. For the victim witnesses of trafficking
in human
beings, a special programme has been developed to protect and care for victims.
For instance, victim witnesses may receive
a work permit for the duration of
their necessary stay in the Federal Republic of Germany. Furthermore, medical
and therapy costs
may be assumed for women in accordance with the Victim
Compensation Act (Opferentschädigungsgesetz).

Re para. 36:

The Committee urges the Government to recognize that trafficked women are
victims of human rights violations in need of protection
and, accordingly, to
provide assistance to them. It also urges the Government to increase efforts of
cross-border and international
cooperation, especially with countries of origin
and transit, to reduce the incidence of trafficking and to prosecute
traffickers.
It calls on the Government to ensure that trafficked women have the
support that they need so that they can provide testimony against
their
traffickers. It also urges that training of border police and law enforcement
officials provide them with the requisite skills
to recognize and provide
support to victims of trafficking. It also recommends that the Government review
its procedures for issuance
of visas to dependent spouses, taking into
consideration that such spouses may be vulnerable to sexual
exploitation.

Here, the Committee mentioned in particular the residence status of foreign
female and male witnesses. In this context, No. 248 of
the RiStBV
(Guidelines for Criminal and Administrative Fines Proceedings [Richtlinien
für das Strafverfahren und das Bußgeldverfahren])
should be quoted to
which the following new para. 3 was added in the summer of 2000:

"(3) If in criminal proceedings the summons of a foreign person concerned by
the offence as a witness in the main hearing is necessary,
and if they consent
to a further time-limited stay in the Federal Republic of Germany, the public
prosecution office shall inform
the competent immigration authority with the aim
in mind of postponing measures to terminate residence for the duration of the
criminal
proceedings, and in particular to issue a temporary suspension of
deportation in accordance with section 55 subsection 3 of the Aliens
Act. If the foreign person is no longer needed as a witness for the criminal
proceedings, the public prosecutor shall inform the
immigration authority of
this immediately."

Re paragraphs 37 and 38:

The Committee is concerned at the continuing stereotypical portrayal of
women, especially of foreign women, in the media.

The Committee urges the Government to support the important role of the
media in changing stereotypical attitudes to women. It recommends
that
opportunities be created for the portrayal of positive, non-traditional images
of women and to encourage and facilitate the
use of self-regulatory mechanisms
in the media to reduce discriminatory and stereotypical portrayals of
women.

The portrayal of women and the treatment of matters related to women in the
media plays a major role for the Federal Government. Also
particular interest is
attached to the pictures of women in advertising since advertising has both a
positive and a negative influence
on the portrayal of women. It cannot be denied
that commercial advertising remains wedded to stereotypical ideas. It can be
ascertained
that advertising which obviously discriminates against women, where
women are portrayed for instance as a mere sex and decoration
object, has
considerably reduced in recent years, which is certainly also an achievement of
the German Advertising Council, a voluntary
self-regulatory body of the German
advertising industry. The German Advertising Council has formed at the
initiative of the Federal
Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women
and Youth and of the German Women's Council a complaints body with the aim in
mind of reducing the number of adverts that are discriminatory towards women,
and to introduce women's policy points of view into
the evaluation of
advertising.

Re paragraphs 39 and 40:

The Committee is concerned that, although they are legally obliged to pay
taxes, prostitutes still do not enjoy the protection of
labour and social
law.

The Committee recommends that the Government improve the legislative
situation affecting these women so as to render them less vulnerable
to
exploitation and increase their social protection.

The Act Regulating the Legal Situation of Prostitutes (Gesetz zur Regelung
der Rechtsverhältnisse der Prostituierten) entered
into force on
1 January 2002, by means of which the legal and social protection situation
of prostitutes was improved. The core of
the Prostitution Act is that
prostitutes are enabled or made more easily able to gain access to social
insurance. Prostitution is
no longer considered immoral under civil law.
Prostitutes have an actionable right to an agreed wage.

Re paragraphs 41 and 42:

Noting the Government's intention to amend the Aliens Act on the legal
status of foreign spouses, the Committee is concerned at the
situation of alien
women seeking residence in the State party.

The Committee urges the Government to continue to improve the legislative
and social protection of alien women, especially of women
asylum
seekers.

The Act Reforming Section 19 of the Aliens Act entered into force on
1 June 2000, in accordance with which the legal position in particular
of
female spouses with a migration background was improved. More detailed
discussion is provided on this in Part II at 6.5.

Insofar as the Committee spoke of social protection, it should be noted that
in the Federal Republic of Germany the duty to have insurance
and to make
contributions depends exclusively on whether employment for financial reward or
self-employed work, which is subject
to the duty to have insurance and to make
contributions, exists in accordance with special provisions relating to the duty
to have
insurance and to make contributions. Here, the nationality and the
gender of staff is of no significance for social insurance. Furthermore,
the
so-called territoriality principle applies. Accordingly, individuals exercising
work in the territory of the Federal Republic
of Germany for which insurance is
obligatory are on principle included in German social insurance irrespective of
their nationalities.

Re para. 43:

The Committee urges the Government to deposit its instrument of acceptance
of the amendment to article 20, paragraph 1, of the Convention
as soon as
possible.

The urging of the Committee to deposit its instrument of acceptance with
regard to the amendment to Article 20, paragraph 1, of the
Convention was
complied with on 25 February 2002.

Re para. 44:

The Committee also urges the Government to ratify the Optional Protocol to
the Convention.

The Federal Republic of Germany signed the Optional Protocol on
15 January 2002 which entered into force on 15 April 2002, three months
after the deposit of the depository notification.

Re para. 45:

The Committee requests that the Government respond in its next periodic
report to the specific issues raised in these concluding comments.
The Committee
also requests that the Government engage in a broad consultative process with
women's non-governmental organizations,
including those that represent foreign
women, when preparing its next report.

The request of the Committee to respond to the specific issues raised in the
Consideration of Reports is complied with in this Fifth
Report. The Federal
Government is in constant contact with non-Governmental organisations for women.
It should be noted by way of
example that the Federal Republic of Germany has
taken on two representatives of non-governmental organisations in the German
Delegation
as full members since the twenty-third Special Session of the General
Assembly in June 2000 at the sessions of the Commission on
the Status of Women
and takes their advice on the topics to be dealt with.

Re para. 46:

The Committee requests the wide dissemination in Germany of the present
concluding comments in order to make the people of Germany,
particularly
government administrators and politicians, aware of the steps that have been
taken to ensure de jure and de facto equality
for women and the future steps
that are required in that regard. It also requests the Government to continue to
disseminate widely,
in particular to women's and human rights organizations, the
Convention and its Optional Protocol, the Committee's general recommendations
and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

The Committee's request has been complied with. The corresponding material
has been made available to the relevant women's and human
rights organisations,
as well as to the interested public both via the Internet and directly.

Part I: Women's Living Conditions in the Federal Republic of
Germany

1. Population

At the end of 1999, some 82.2 million people lived in the Federal Republic of
Germany in an area of roughly 357,000 km2, in other words
approximately 0.2 million more people than when the last CEDAW National Report
was made (reference year: 1996). This
total includes roughly 7.3 million
foreigners, 0.4 million more than in 1993. Women account for the majority of the
population, with
42.1 million (51.2%) as opposed to 40.6 million men (48.8%).

Roughly one in three inhabitants lives in one of the 83 major cities with a
population of more than 100,000 inhabitants. 34.9 million
people, i.e. roughly
42.4% of the total population, live in communities with fewer than 20,000
inhabitants, including 6.1 million
(1996: 6.4 million; 1993: 7.3 million) in
villages with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants. Compared to other European
countries, the population
density is high: In relation to the entire territory
of the Federal Republic of Germany, it amounts to 230 inhabitants per
km2, and has thus remained virtually constant in recent years. (for
comparison, Greece: 80, France: 108, Great Britain and Northern Ireland:
244,
the Netherlands: 465). However, the population distribution is extremely uneven:
Some urban areas, such as the Ruhr District,
reach a density of 1,136 people per
km2, while other regions are relatively sparsely populated.

The age structure of the population has shifted more and more in favour of
older people in recent years. The Federal Republic of Germany
has had one of the
lowest birth rates in the world for many years now: Only 9.4 live births per
1,000 inhabitants were registered
in 1999 (1996: 9.7). Women have a markedly
higher life expectancy than men: new-born females have a life expectancy of 80,6
years,
while for new-born males it is only 74,4 years. There are
8.4 million women and 5.3 million men in the age group of the over 65s
(cf. Table 1 in the Appendix).

Slightly less than half the female population (45.3% in 2000) is married (cf.
Table 2.1 in the Appendix). On average, single women
marry at the age of 28.3
years, and single men at the age of 31.0 - these figures being 0.7 and 1 year,
respectively, later than
in the previous report. In this context, the marrying
age in the new Federal Länder is still lower than in the old Federal
Länder.

430,674 marriages were entered into in the whole of Germany in 1999 (1996
427,297; 1993: 442,605), while there were 190,760 divorces
(1996 175,550; 1993:
156,425).

The average age of mothers giving birth to their first-born child has further
increased, rising in 1999 to 28.8 years (1996 28.4 years,
1991 26.9 years) in
the old Federal Länder 28.9 in 1999 (1996 28.4; 1991 27.1) and
28.2 years in 1999 (1996 27.3; 1991 24.9)
in the new Federal Länder and
East Berlin.

After a short-lived increase in 1996 and 1997, the number of births in
the old Federal Länder is falling continually once more
(1995 681,374; 1996
702,688; 1997 711,915; 1998 682,172; 1999 664,018). In the new Länder
and East Berlin, the birth figures
are gradually increasing once more (1996
93,325; 1997 100,258; 1998 102,862; 1999 106,726). The number of births
fell from 178,476
to 78,698 between 1990 and 1994.

7.3 million married couples and 2.0 million single parents, including
1.7 million single mothers, had children under the age of 18
in May 2000
(1993: 7.9 million married couples and 1.6 million single parents, including 1.4
million single mothers). There is only
one child in half of all families with
children. Families with four and more children are rare (cf. Table 2.2 in the
Appendix).

2. Legal and political framework conditions

We describe below the legal and political framework in comparison to the last
National CEDAW Report.

2.1 Act Amending the Aliens Act (Ausländergesetz)

The Act Amending the Aliens Act entered into force on 1 June 2000.
Section 19 of the Aliens Act governs the independent right of residence
of
foreign spouses in the event of the dissolution of the marital community.
Foreign spouses now receive their own right of residence
in the event of a
separation after two years, instead of the previous four. The hardship clause,
in accordance with which an independent
right of residence may be awarded before
this period expires, has also been redesigned.

The reform of the Federal Child-Raising Benefit Act entered into force on
1 January 2001. It applies to births from 2001 onwards.
The reform improves
the conditions for child-raising benefit and child-raising leave, which is now
referred to as parental leave.
This Act creates clear improvements in the
framework for joint childcare by both parents, who can at the same time work and
gain
qualifications.

Parents have a right to parental leave for up to three years for one child,
whilst retaining full protection against dismissal. They
may also jointly avail
themselves of this entire right, or of part of this right. Parental leave
normally ends on the child's third
birthday. With the consent of the employer,
however, it may be transferred up to a year at a time up until the child's
eighth birthday.
Part-time working of up to 30 hours per week is permitted
during parental leave, and of up to 60 hours per week if parental leave
is taken
jointly. The new flexible parental leave replaces the old child-raising leave,
the name and the inflexible rules of which
(no legal possibility for joint
child-raising leave, restriction on permissible part-time working to up to 19
hours per week) were
out of date. (Cf. also Part II 11.5.1)

2.3 Act on Part-Time Working and Fixed-Term Employment Contracts

The Act on Part-Time Working and Fixed-Term Employment Contracts and Amending
and Rescinding Labour Law provisions entered into force
on 1 January 2001.
One core item is the statutory right to part-time working in companies with more
than 15 employees, including
managerial positions. Employees in the Federal
Republic of Germany whose employment has lasted for more than six months may
require
that their contractually-agreed working hours be reduced. The employer
must discuss with the employee the desired reduction of their
working hours with
the aim in mind to reach an agreement regarding working hours and their
distribution. This new legal provision
goes beyond reconciliation of work and
family. It in fact also separately makes it possible to reconcile part-time
working independently
of family duties. Furthermore, this Act provides that
employees who wish to extend their contractually agreed working hours are to
be
given priority in comparison with others with the same aptitude after
communication to the employer if a suitable post is available.

The Act to Reform the Works Constitution Act entered into force on
28 July 2001. The reform entails an improvement in equal opportunities for
women and men.

For works assemblies and departmental meetings, there is a regular duty to
report on the state of the equality of women and men in
the works. Equally, this
duty to report is prescribed for the management at the annual works council
meetings. The tasks of the youth
and trainee representatives have been expanded
to include the field of measures to implement de facto equality. On the works
council,
in future the gender which is in the minority in the staff must be
represented at least in its numerical ratio if it consists of
at least three
members. The genders should be appropriately represented on the General Works
Council – as well as on central
works councils of affiliated companies.
This pattern should also be followed with the youth and trainee representatives,
in that
the gender which is in the minority must be represented at least in line
with its proportion of the workforce.

The promotion of the reconciliation of family and work is to become the
general task of the works council. The works council is given
an express right
to make of proposal, information and advice in the framework of staff planning
as part of its general tasks to promote
the implementation of de facto equality
and the reconciliation of family and work.

Part-time workers receive a compensation right for works council work
rendered outside their personal working hours or for participation
in an all-day
training course. Other compensation in the shape of partial release enables
part-time workers in particular, and hence
above all women, the opportunity to
enter into a greater commitment to the works council.

The Act on Registered Partnerships which entered into force on 1 August
2001 introduced the separate legal institution of life partnership.
This Act
helps to reduce discrimination against persons of same-sex orientation, to
respect other ways of living and to promote stable
human relationships. The
effect of the establishment of a life partnership is that the life partners are
obliged to care for and
support one another and to plan their lives together and
bear responsibility for one another.

2.6 Act on Equal Opportunities between Women and Men in the Federal
Administration and in the Courts of the Federation

The Federal Act on Equal Opportunities between Women and Men in the Federal
Administration and in the Courts of the Federation (Gleichstellungsgesetz
für die Bundesverwaltung und die Gerichte des Bundes), which entered into
force on 5 December 2001, places greater emphasis
on equality between the
staff of the public service of the Federation. It replaces the Federal Act on
the Promotion of Women (Frauenfördergesetz
des Bundes), in force since
1994, which did not have the hoped-for impact because it was not sufficiently
binding. This corresponds
to the constitutional mandate contained in the Basic
Law (Article 3 para 2 second sentence of the Basic Law), the
requirements of
the EC Treaty (Article 2, Article 3 para 2 and
Article 141 para 4 of the EC Treaty) and international law obligations
(Article 11
of the CEDAW). With this Act, the state as an employer
undertakes the function of a role model where the implementation of equality
is
concerned.

The necessary improvements and closer definitions contained in this new
Federal Equal Opportunities Act provide for the following,
amongst other
things:

• The area of application of the Act covers the Federal administration
which is organised under public law, the courts of the
Federation and the
private law facilities of the Federal administration. On the basis of this Act,
institutional recipients of Federal
benefits will in future be contractually
obliged to apply its basic tenets. In the event of privatisation, a contractual
obligation
should be striven for to ensure that the equality regulations
continue to apply.

• Women with the same aptitude, qualifications and professional
achievements are given preference when filling senior positions
if they are
underrepresented in the respective field, taking account of the individual
cases, in training, appointments, recruitment
and promotion (so-called
individual case quota).

• With interview and selection procedures, indirect discrimination in
any form is also banned. This means that in comparative
evaluations, for
instance the interruption of employment because of family duties, time burdens
caused by childcare and a smaller
number of service and employment years may not
be taken into account.

• All equality provisions on principle also apply to the allocation of
training places in the Federal public service.

• The improved provisions on the reconciliation of family and work
include, amongst others, a right to part-time employment
or leave. In the
framework of the official possibilities, teleworking posts or special working
hours models are to be offered. The
burdens of part-time workers are in fact to
be reduced in line with their reduced working hours.

• The equality plans are being expanded to form effective tools for
modern personnel planning and development. For instance,
equality plans must
amongst other things provide that the proportion of women at least remains the
same when jobs are cut.

• The rights and duties of equality commissioners of the Federation are
being strengthened and given concrete form, amongst
other things by a more
effective right to object and an additional right to take legal action. Their
mandate is being expanded.

• The equality policy tool of gender mainstreaming, meaning the
inclusion on principle of gender-specific interests in all fields
of policy, is
being anchored in the Federal service as an ongoing guiding principle.

• All legal provisions of the Federation, as well as official written
correspondence, are in future to be written in gender-neutral
language, and the
applicable law is to be reviewed from a linguistic point of view if it is
typified by masculine designations of
persons.

The Act Regulating the Legal Position of Prostitutes (Prostitution Act -
Prostitutionsgesetz) entered into force on 1 January 2002,
enabling
prostitutes to exercise their work either on a self-employed basis or in
dependent employment with social insurance. In
order to make this possible, the
clarification was made that prostitution is no longer considered immoral under
civil law and that
prostitutes have an actionable right to an agreed wage.

2.8 Act to Protect against Violence (Gewaltschutzgesetz)

On 1 January 2002, the Act to Improve Civil Court Protection in the
Event of Violent Acts and Unwelcome Advances, as well as to Facilitate
Allocation of the Marital Home in the Event of Separation (Gesetz zur
Verbesserung des zivilgerichtlichen Schutzes bei Gewalttaten
und Nachstellungen
sowie zur Erleichterung der Überlassung der Ehewohnung bei Trennung (Act to
Protect Against Violence - Gewaltschutzgesetz)
entered into force, introducing
in addition to the simplified allocation of the marital home and regulations for
a ban on contact,
harassment and coming close, also a general right to
allocation of the home if violent acts have taken place. This is conditional
on
the offender and the victim having a joint household established in the long
term, forms of co-habitation other than marriage
also being taken into account.
This Act enables the courts to issue protective orders in accordance with which
violent offenders
may be prohibited from

The Act to Further Improve Children's Rights (Gesetz zur weiteren
Verbesserung von Kindesrechten - KindrVerbG) entered into force
on 12 April
2002. This Act makes it easier to order a person to leave a child's environment
if this person constitutes a danger to
the best interests of the child. In
particular cases are considered here in which violent acts have been carried out
against the
child. The Violence Protection Act grants no protection in those
cases in which the violence targets only the child and emanates
from one parent.
This is now expanded in favour of the child, and hence at least indirectly also
in favour of the mother.

3. Economic and social framework conditions

3.1 Changing economic structures

In terms of macroeconomic output, the Federal Republic of Germany takes third
place among the industrial nations, after the USA and
Japan. Its gross domestic
product grew in real terms by more than 15% between 1960 and 2000, whilst on an
annual average the economic
growth in this period was hence almost 1.6%.

The proportion of gainfully employed persons in manufacturing (including
construction) among all gainfully employed persons fell between
1991 and 2000
from 36.7% to 29.2%, and from 4.0% to 2.5% in agriculture. By contrast,
increasing proportions of persons in gainful
employment have been recorded by
the tertiary sector (wholesale and retail trade, hotels and restaurants and
transport, financial
intermediation, letting and service-provision, state and
private service-providers) from almost 59% to 68.4%.

The growing share of the tertiary sector in the overall economy had direct
consequences as regards female employment. The proportion
of women in gainful
employment in May 2000 was 54% in the service sector and just under 24% in
manufacturing and construction. In
the former Federal territory, the proportion
of women was 53% and in the new Länder and East Berlin it was 57%
(cf. table 3.1
to 3.3 in the Appendix)

3.2 Education and training

3.2.1 General remarks

Girls and women have benefited considerably from the developments in
education policy and the opening of education channels since
the 1980s: They
have seized the opportunity to demonstrate their willingness and ability to
learn, and today account for the majority
of the pupils in all education
channels leading to the "Abitur" school-leaving certificate (cf. table 4.1
in the Appendix). Upon
leaving the schools providing general education, on
average they have higher school-leaving qualifications than their male
counterparts
and also achieve better grades. For example, the proportion of
girls in 2000 was 50.9 % at intermediate schools, 53.8 % at grammar
schools in
years 5 to 10 and 55.9 % in years 11 to 13, but only 43.8% at secondary general
schools. The number of new and current
female students at institutions of higher
education has also risen substantially. Since the 1995/96 winter semester, more
women than
men have been starting a course of study at a German university
(cf. table 4.3.1 and 4.3.2 in the Appendix). The subjects chosen
by female
and male students have also become more similar in recent years (cf. graphs
4.3.3 and 4.3.4 in the Appendix).

3.2.2 Training in accordance with the dual system

The proportion of young women among the trainees in the dual system (i.e.
training in a company and at a vocational school) is increasing
only very slowly
and the Federal average is about 40% (cf. table 4.2.4 in the Appendix). In
Berlin the proportion is higher, at 45.5%,
and it is lower in the new Federal
Länder, at approx. 38%. Out of a total of 1,920,751 persons attending
vocational schools
in 2000/2001, some 779,143 were women (40.56%). The reasons
for this can be found partly in the narrow spectrum of occupations, as
well as
in the ongoing classical role allocations. By contrast, more girls (1,228,300)
than boys (1,028,900) attend grammar schools.
Since in the German educational
system the vocational prospects for those with an "Abitur" school-leaving
certificate can on principle
be regarded as more favourable, related to the
training opportunities offered to women as a whole, it is not possible to regard
this
as a discriminatory situation for women.

In contrast, young women are in the majority in the field of vocational
training in schools (full-time vocational schools) (1999 57.2%).

However, the market for training places has continued to be characterised by
a marked division between men and women. After completing
their schooling, most
girls and boys choose occupations requiring formal training in which their own
gender has a clear majority.
In 2001, 37.1% of the female trainees were in
occupations which are primarily practised by women (more than 60% or 80% of
female
trainees) and 34.8% in occupations where women are dominant (i.e. with
80-100% of female trainees). In total, therefore, more than
70% of girls
selected vocations in which they are in a clear majority.

In comparison to this, in 2001 4.4% of female trainees were in occupations
which are primarily practised by men and 3.9% in occupations
where men are
dominant. The Federal Government pays special attention to this development in
the Reports on Vocational Training that
are submitted annually (cf. tables
4.2.1. to 4.2.3 in the Appendix).

3.2.3 Training of women in the occupations of information and
communication technologies

In June 1999, the Bund/Länder Commission for Educational Planning and
Research Promotion (BLK) adopted a report entitled "Improving
women's
opportunities in training and at work". It contains specific recommendations for
action to gain women for natural science
and technical occupations in both
schools and higher education institutions.

A major contribution has been made to this increased interest on the part of
young women in information technology training by information
and education
campaigns, practical workshops and training courses for female multipliers which
are combined in the "Competence Centre
for Women in the Information Society and
Technology" which was initiated by the Federal Government. Furthermore, the
Competence Centre
combines many projects and measures in IT training and
occupations on behalf of the Federal Government and in cooperation with
enterprises
and women's technology networks.

A focus of the Federal Government's initiatives is to expand the spectrum of
occupations for girls and young women and to train them
in future-orientated
vocational fields. The Federal Government is hence using a broad range of
activities to attract attention to
IT training and occupations. This includes
for instance "Idea IT", a national training project of the Federal Ministry for
Family
Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth in cooperation with the D21
Initiative in public-private partnership, by means of which
young women are to
be motivated to enter training in the IT and media occupations. This focuses on
several levels:

- Enterprises are specifically called on to take part in the
activities available, to provide more internships and training places for
women
and to select female staff in their enterprises as "ambassadors" to report on
their work in schools, chats and other activities.

- The interest of young women is to be aroused by means of competent
information and advice.

- Training itself is to be made more attractive by virtue of a new
image and new content, in particular for women. Additionally, trainers
are to be
specifically prepared to implement equal opportunities.

In this context, the "Joblab" multimedia management game is also significant,
with its targeted information on IT occupations for
careers advice. In order to
give girls an insight into the world of work, the Girls' Day (girls' future
day), which has already been
successfully tested in 2001 and 2002, is to be
continued at national level in 2003.

The measures are supplemented by the LizzyNet Internet portal, in which girls
try to use the Internet. The Federal Government has
greatly extended the online
training courses and further training of teachers via LeaNet, the Internet forum
for teachers in the
context of the "Schools onto the Net" association. The
"Be.it –" and "Be.ing –" Internet portal is used, in cooperation
with the business community, to present national girls' technology days,
internship databases for female students and girls intending
to study, as well
as attractive study offerings.

The number of female trainees in the four IT occupations, specialised
computer scientist, IT – system electronics specialist,
IT – system
clerk and computer science clerk increased almost seven-fold between 1997 and
2000. From 665 trainees in 1997,
the number increased to 5,253 in 2000. In the
framework of the "Further training of women from IT occupations to become IT
trainers"
project, the Federal Government considerably increased the number of
female trainers by the end of 2002. In parallel with this, a
training curriculum
is being developed, including the guideline of gender mainstreaming, which takes
account of the concerns of women
and men in training and will be used in future
by multipliers.

3.3 Women in institutions of higher education and research

3.3.1 General remarks

More and more young women are deciding to study today. Thus, more young women
than young men started a university course in the winter
semester 2000/2001
(53.4%). In the academic year 2000, the proportion of female students starting
courses at institutions of higher
education (universities, colleges of art and
Technical Colleges) was 49.0%. Women complete higher education courses just as
successfully
as male students. It can thus be expected that participation by
women in study courses and the sitting of final examinations will
continue to
increase in the coming years until they match the numbers of new students now
reached.

In order to establish equal rights for women and men, one of the important
goals is also to increase the participation of women in
the subjects primarily
chosen by men and again to motivate and support women in choosing previously
atypical training and career
goals. It is important in this context that there
should be modern, future-orientated study courses which can offer women
attractive
career prospects. The Federal Government has therefore made a special
effort to increase the proportion of women in the technical
and natural science
subjects. Many institutions of higher education now offer try-it-out study
courses and summer courses at institutions
of higher education in the natural
science subjects specially for female pupils. Mentoring programmes in
Rhineland-Palatinate (Ada
Lovelace project) and in Hesse (Network of Female
Mentors in natural science and technical subjects) aim to provide personal
support
in the transition from school to an institution of higher education and
to make female role models visible.

For female computer science students, the Federal Ministry of Education and
Research in cooperation with the D 21 Initiative and the
Fraunhof Society
(formerly known as the GMD) initiated the "Muffin" and "Muffin21" mentoring
projects. Even during their studies,
female students can plan their further
careers with specialist, personal advice with female mentors from research
facilities and
industry.

Courses of study exclusively for women have been established as pilot
projects since the mid-nineties, such as the women's studies
in Industrial
Engineering at the FH Wilhelmshaven (since the 1997/98 winter semester) and at
Stralsund Technical College (since the
2000/01 winter semester) as well as
Energy Consultancy at Bielefeld Technical College (since the 1998/99 winter
semester, open to
men since the 2000/01 winter semester). At the Bremen
institution of higher education there has been an international women's course
of studies in computer science since the 2000/01 winter semester.

In 2000, the proportion of women among students leaving institutions of
higher education after passing their diploma or equivalent
final examinations in
the whole of Germany amounted to 44.8%. The proportion of women entering the
scientific field is still too
low, even if the proportion of women among
doctoral candidates increased from 28.5% in 1990 to 34.3% in 2000.

The number of women who qualify for a career in the sciences has risen
substantially in recent years. This is largely a result of
measures and
recommendations of the Bund/Länder Commission for Educational Planning and
Research Promotion, and also the Universities
Special Programmes launched by the
Federal Government and the Länder in the early 1990s with special emphasis
on the promotion
of women in science. More than € 500 million were spent
from 1990 to 1999 in the field of "Women in science". The proportion
of women
among candidates for qualification as higher education lecturers increased from
10% in 1990 to 18.04% in 2000. The proportion
of women at institutions of higher
education among full-time scientific and artistic staff amounted to 30.4% in
2000. The proportion
of women among C-2 professorships increased from 14.2% in
1999 to 14.9% in 2000, among C-3 professorships from 10.2% to 11%, among
C-4
professorships from 6.3% to 7.1%. (table 4.4 in the Appendix)

3.3.2 Results of the Third Universities Special Programme (HSP
III)

The Joint Universities Special Programme (HSP III) for the period 1996 to
end-2000 was presented in the most recent CEDAW Report.
In this Programme, the
Federation and the Länder agreed to increase considerably the proportion of
women in research and teaching.
In the implementation of the HSP III, the
integration of conclusions and recommendations formulated in the report of the
Bund/Länder
Commission for Educational Planning and Research Promotion
entitled "Promotion of Women in the Scientific Sector" is undertaken.
The
originally envisioned programme volume amounting to DM 720 million was
indeed exceeded by DM 11 million.

It can be stated as a result that the HSP III promoted a total of 4,407
doctoral candidates, 1,439 of whom were women, making 32.65%.
Despite a tense
labour market, it was hence possible to enable a large number of doctoral
candidates to enter research. Promotion
of candidates for qualification as
higher education lecturers promoted a total of 261 such candidates, 83 of whom
were women, whilst
in the humanities and social sciences 55 out of 158, in the
subjects biology, medicine and agronomy 16 women out of 42 and with natural
science 8 out of a total of 50, with engineering 4 out of 11 candidates for
qualification as higher education lecturers were promoted.
It is worth
mentioning that 33 of those promoted, including 28 women, received a childcare
allowance.

The HSP III enabled many young female scientists to return to an institution
of higher education after the "baby break". To this end,
so-called relaunch and
contact grants were given, contracts for work and services concluded or
part-time working posts made available.
By these means, it has been possible to
reduce disadvantageous effects on career development.

All grants funded from the HSP III were equipped with a childcare allowance
in order thus to open up to women in particular the possibility
of reconciling
educational tasks and scientific work. The grant beneficiaries– as far as
we can tell mostly women – indeed
made use of this where the preconditions
were met.

The number of women among professors is nevertheless still too low. The
Federal Government hence at the end of the nineties together
with the
Länder set the goal of increasing the proportion of female professors by
2005 to 20%.

In order to be able to make greater use of the potential offered by
highly-qualified women also because of the coming change of generations
at
institutions of higher education, the Federal Government has initiated a large
number of measures in order to establish women
in science and research,
especially in managerial positions.

It can be stated as a conclusion that in spite of considerable efforts made
by the Federation and the Länder and the concomitant
financial expenditure,
the envisioned greater participation of women in science has not yet been
achieved in all fields and at all
levels. This applies in particular to
managerial positions in institutions of higher education and non-university
research facilities.
Hence, the Federation and the Länder have agreed to
continue their joint efforts to realise the concept of equal opportunities
for
women in science and research, including after the HSP III has run out. To this
end, the Bund-Länder Agreement to Promote
the Further Development of
Institutions of Higher Education and Science and to Realise the Concept of Equal
Opportunities for Women
in Research and Teaching as follow-up activities for
Universities Special Programme III as the so-called University Science Programme
(HWP) was reached on 16 December 1999 to run from 2001 up to, initially,
2003. The Federation and the Länder intend to take
account of the results
of an evaluation of the agreed measures to be carried out in 2002 in deciding
whether to extend the period
of the programme to 2006.

A part of the new HWP programme is the "Equal opportunities for women in
research and teaching" programme which is jointly supported
by the Federation
and the Länder, focusing on the following:

• measures leading to qualification for a professorship at universities
or for a professorship at Technical Colleges. The majority
of the funding is
envisioned for this (75%).

• measures of women/gender research, and

• measures to increase the proportion of women in natural science and
technical courses of study.

The Federation and the Länder are providing funding of € 30.7
million per year for this programme. 40% participation by
women in the personal
measures is the target for all HWP programmes.

The measures taken by the Federal Government to realise the concept of equal
opportunities for women in science and research are listed
below:

• The "Helping to rise – career strategies for female scientists"
programme established by the Federal Ministry of Education
and Research
accompanies the reform of service law and the HWP. It offers female scientists
applying for posts as a professor or
junior professor career training and
coaching to enable them to hold a better starting position in the selection
procedures, which
are dominated by men. The participation of more than 500
highly-qualified women nationally in the programme shows how important this
initiative is. This is why a call for tender for the programme will be issued
once more in autumn 2002.

• The International Women's University "Technology and Culture" (ifu)
promoted by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research
which took place
during the EXPO 2000 in Hanover was an exemplary reform project for institutions
of higher education. With the ifu,
the achievements of women in science and
research were to be made visible worldwide. The ifu has shown the way towards a
new scientific
culture. Consistently accommodating female points of view and the
gender perspective in all matters related to research is the scientific
culture
of the future.

• The "Center of Excellence Women and Science" (CEWS) which was
established by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research
in 2000 at the
University of Bonn as the national coordination agency, service centre and link
to the European Union has the task
of promoting the equal opportunities of women
in education and research. It is to support the Federal Government, institutions
of
higher education and research facilities, commissioners for matters related
to women and equality, scientific and political institutions
in their measures
to realise the concept of equal participation by women in science and research.
The FemConsultdata base went online in 2002 with more than 7,000
datasets of female scientists in all subjects from Germany, Austria and
Switzerland
with a doctorate or professorship.

• With the reform of service law, the Federal Government intends to
enable young female and male scientists to research and
teach independently and
on their own responsibility in their early thirties, and not make them wait
until the age of 40, by introducing
junior professorships. Transparent
appointment procedures break up encrusted structures and remove informal staff
recruitment mechanisms.
This is intended to terminate discrimination against
women within this procedure. With the new instrument of the "junior
professorship"
career opportunities will be offered to more young female
scientists.

• Since 2000, institutions of higher education and research facilities
which operate a personnel policy orientated in line with
equal opportunities
have been awarded the Total E-Quality prize which previously was almost only
awarded within the business community.
As a quality seal, the insignia is
intended to create an impetus to make equal opportunities a matter for the
highest level in management
circles and personnel administrations. At the same
time, it is to serve for young women as an orientation in looking for an
institution
of higher education which promotes their interests.

In addition to integrating equality policy goals into financial incentive
systems, evaluation, controlling and other reform measures
at institutions of
higher education, there is one challenge which will face us in the time to come,
namely that of changing the scientific
qualification structures such that the
intellectual potential of women is used more intensively. With the introduction
of the strategy
of gender mainstreaming, a change in perspective in equality
policy has been completed. For institutions of higher education, this
change in
perspective means that the realisation of equal opportunities is a managerial
task even more than before.

3.3.3 Research into women and gender research

The present establishment status of research into women within the
institutions of higher education is closely linked to the establishment
of
professorships for research into women. In June 2001, it was possible to count a
total of 102 women's research professorships
at German Universities and another
17 at German Technical Colleges, as against the 1992 figure of only 61. These
professorships for
research into women were summarised in three types of
professorship: those which had been established only for research into women
and
gender research, and professorships which in addition to a general specific
orientation in the denomination also have a focus
on research into women and
gender research, as well as professorships in whose tender text, the special
listing of the holder of
the post in the field of research into women and gender
research is a precondition.

3.4 Working life

3.4.1 Employment ratio

The situation of women in working life has continued to improve since the
Fourth National Report was submitted in 1998. The employment
ratio of women
(meaning the proportion of women as against the population in gainful employment
aged between 15 – 65) has increased
since 1997 from 55.2% to 57.7% in
2000, so that Germany has already reached the interim goal of a women's
employment ratio of 57%
by 2005 which was formulated at the European Summit in
Stockholm. In view of the increase rates achieved in recent years, the Federal
Government is confident that it can implement the instruction of the European
Council of Lisbon, namely to achieve a women's employment
ratio of 60% by
2010.

The increase in the employment ratio of women is due to a heightened
awareness of employment, the promotion of part-time working and
a reduction in
unemployment. Since 1997, the employment ratio of women (meaning the proportion
of women as against those in gainful
employment and not in gainful employment in
the population aged between 15 – 65) of 62.8% increased to 64.0% in 2000.
In the
same period, the unemployment ratio of women fell from 12.2% to 10.0%.
This positive development has led to a situation in which
the proportion of
women among those in gainful employment has risen from 42.7% (1997) to 43.6%
(2000).

3.4.2 Unemployment ratio

The unemployment ratio of women has fallen continually since 1997. It has
also been possible to reduce the gender-specific discrepancy
in the unemployment
ratios. Whilst the unemployment ratio of women fell from 12.2% (1997) to 10.0%
(2000), the unemployment ratio
of men fell less quickly, namely from 10.8%
(1997) to 9.2% (2000).

In the same period, the degree to which women and men are affected by
long-term unemployment increased. Whilst among women the proportion
of the
long-term unemployed among all the unemployed increased from 34.7% (1997) to
38.2% (2000), the proportion of long-term unemployed
men increased from 29.8%
(1997) to 32.8% (2000). This means that women remain more seriously affected by
long-term unemployment than
men.

3.4.3 Comparing the old with the new Federal Länder

In the old Federal Länder, the situation for women on the labour market
has undergone very positive changes in recent years.
Women have been able to
benefit to the same extent as men from the improvement in the economic
situation, so that their unemployment
ratio fell from 10.7% (1997) to 7.9%
(2001). Whilst the number of unemployed women in this period fell by roughly
180,000, the number
of gainfully-employed women however increased by more than
920,000. These figures make it clear that the additional potential for
female
gainful employees was mobilised with great success in the old Federal
Länder. In the new Federal Länder, the unemployment
ratio of women is
higher than that of men, but the gap has become smaller since the last National
Report. Whilst their unemployment
ratio in 1997 was 22.5%, it fell in 2000 to
18.8%. That of men was 16.6% in 1997 and fell to 15.9% in 2000. However, the
fall in
the number of unemployed women has not led to a corresponding increase
in the number of women in gainful employment. It is obvious
that some women who
were registered unemployed have now withdrawn from the labour market in light of
the difficult situation on the
labour market in the new Federal Länder.
These developments have led to a situation in which the women's employment ratio
was
lower in the new Federal Länder in 2000 (at 57.6%) than in the old
Federal Länder (57.7%) for the first time since the
unification of
Germany.

3.4.4 Part-time employment

According to information provided in 2001 by the Federal Statistical Office
(Microcensus), 86.4% of those in dependent part-time work
were women. The
proportion of part-time employees as against all women in dependent employment
was around 30%. There are still considerable
differences in part-time working
between the old and new Federal Länder: Whilst in the West the part-time
working ratio (= proportion
of women working part time as against all women in
dependent employment) was 43.1%, it was much lower in the East, at 24.4%. The
differences between the East and the West are to be seen both against the
background of the general economic situation in both parts
of Germany, as well
as historically, since the full-time model applied in the former GDR almost
exclusively to women in gainful employment.

3.4.5 Qualifications of women and their occupational status

There is still a discrepancy between the qualifications of women and their
occupational status. Furthermore, the work is differently
distributed among the
genders. The traditional gender-specific division of labour which allocates to
women the family work –
in addition to gainful employment - and to
men the gainful employment has not yet been eliminated. Women in gainful
employment are
frequently in a poorer position in the company hierarchies than
men, even if they have the same qualification. There are still far
too few women
at managerial level. In the lower third of the hierarchy, by contrast, they are
overrepresented.

Although the Federal Government has no opportunity to regulate on matters
related to wages - this is a matter for the partners to
the collective
agreements – it nevertheless supports equal pay for women and men
with a collection of measures and regulations,
and by establishing appropriate
framework conditions in society and at work.

The support is provided by the "Alliance for Jobs and Training", this being a
discussion at the most senior level of the Federal Government,
the employers
associations and the trade unions, which have undertaken to observe equal
opportunities of women and the advancement
of women's gainful employment as a
cross-sectional goal in all initiatives of the Alliance.

In order to analyse the causes more effectively and to be able to implement
targeted measures, the Federal Government submitted to
the German Federal
Parliament in April 2002 a comprehensive report on the occupational and income
situation of women and men. (cf.
below 3.4.12)

3.4.6 Labour promotion

Labour promotion takes on a major function in coping with the difficult
situation on the labour market in the new Federal Länder.
It helps deal not
only with the continuing reduction in employment in some sectors of the economy,
but also helps the companies to
have at their disposal following the economic
restructuring good, optimally qualified staff. In 2000, almost 45% of
expenditure for
active labour promotion was accounted for by the new Federal
Länder. The proportions of women as against the persons promoted
by labour
market policy tools was 54.1% in the new Federal Länder. This exceeded the
instruction entrenched in labour promotion
law to promote women in line with
their proportions of the unemployed (51.8%). Also in the old Federal
Länder, the proportions
of women as against the promoted persons, at 45.7%,
was higher than their proportions of the unemployed (44.7%).

3.4.7 Amendments of labour promotion law – reform of the Book III of
the Social Code (SGB III) and Job AQTIV Act

With the Second Act Amending Book III of the Social Code, which entered into
force on 1 August 1999, the Federal Government carried
out several
improvements in labour promotion law which are relevant to women. In the group
of women and men returning to work, since
the amendment persons have also been
included who have interrupted their unemployment or company vocational training
because of bringing
up or caring for children in need of supervision or family
members in need of long-term care. Since for women returning to work,
relaxed
preconditions for promotion apply as regards the tools contained in Book III of
the Social Code, access by women to the labour
market policy measures has been
considerably improved by this regulation.

Further amendments which are relevant to policy on women are entrenched in
the Job AQTIV Act (Job-AQTIV-Gesetz), which entered into
force on 1 January
2002. AQTIV stands for the German words meaning Activating,
Qualifying, Training, Investing and Communicating.
One of the goals of the Act is to promote the equality of women and men on the
labour market. For this, the equality
of women and men has been entrenched as a
cross-sectional goal in labour promotion law. Furthermore, since 1.1.2002 the
gender-specific
discrepancy among the unemployed must be taken into account in
promoting women using the tools of active labour market policy. Furthermore,
the
Job AQTIV Act is intended to make a contribution towards better reconciliation
of family and work. This goal is served by increasing
the refund amounts for
childcare costs to up to € 130 per child per month if unemployed
persons take part in measures of occupational
basic and further training or
training measures. Furthermore, the Job AQTIV Act increases social security from
2003 onwards by the
times when maternity benefit has been received (as a rule
six weeks before and eight weeks after the birth), and the times of education
of
a child up to three years of age are included in the obligation to be insured at
the Federal Employment Service. This is conditional
on an obligation to be
insured at the Federal Employment Service having existed immediately prior to
receiving maternity benefit
or prior to starting to bring up children, or on a
situation whereby unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance was drawn. The
contributions for this much improved social security are made by the Federation
and the health insurance funds.

3.4.8 Further legal amendments

Here, three legal initiatives are to be named by way of example which advance
the equality of women and men and are intended to facilitate
the reconciliation
of family and work:

• The Act on Equal Opportunities between Women and Men in the Federal
Administration and in the Courts of the Federation, which
entered into force on
5 December 2001, replaced the Act on the Advancement of Women of the
Federation (described in detail in Part
I Chapter 2.5)

• The reform of the Federal Child-Raising Benefit Act
(Bundeserziehungsgeldgesetz), which entered into force on 1 January 2001,
improved the framework for reconciliation of gainful employment and family for
mothers and fathers (dealt with in Part II at 11.5.1),
and

• The Act on Part-Time Working and Fixed-Term Employment Contracts,
which has applied since 1 January 2001, which for the first
time provides
for a general legal right to part-time working in private industry (details at
II 5.1; 11.5.1; 13.3).

3.4.9 Insignificant employment

In all of Germany since 1 January 2002 a standard wage limit has applied
to insignificant employment of € 325 in monthly wages.
With such
employment, the employer must contribute a flat rate of 12% of the wage to the
pension fund and 10% to a health insurance
fund. There is an option for those
employed at an insignificant level to add the flat rate of the employer to the
pension amount
(12%) to make up the full contribution. The wage is tax-free for
employees if the total of the other income in the calendar year
does not exceed
the insignificance threshold. Employment is to be regarded as "insignificant
employment" if the monthly wage does
not exceed the amount of € 325
and fewer than 15 hours are worked weekly. This may be either ancillary or sole
employment.
On principle there is an addition of main employment subject to
insurance and insignificant ancillary employment. Furthermore, short-term
employment of at most two months or a maximum of 50 working days is covered.
Women in particular benefit from the abovementioned
social advantages.

3.4.10 Agreement to promote the equal opportunities of women and men in
private industry

The Federal Government and the national associations of German industry also
took an important step towards the equality of women
and men in industry on
2 July 2001 in the shape of the "Agreement to promote the equal
opportunities of women and men in private
industry". The national associations
of German industry have also agreed to recommend to their members a range of
in-company measures
to improve equal opportunities of women and men, as well as
family friendliness.

Depending on the respective circumstances in situ, suitable in-company
measures may include, for instance:

• entrenching equal opportunities and family friendliness as part of
the corporate philosophy,

• increasing the proportion of women in managerial positions,

• preparing offers to win over more young women for future-orientated
training and other training,

• improving the reconciliation of family and work for mothers and
fathers, and

• formulating and documenting binding goals to realise the concept of
equal opportunities and family friendliness in companies;
staff in the works are
to be involved in this.

This modern concept for equality between women and men in private industry
depends on the enterprises' initiative. Implementation
is supported by a senior
group composed from the political arena and national associations. A first
success check will take place
in 2003, and after that at two-yearly intervals.
An initial contribution towards a stocktake is now available in the shape of the
publication entitled "Labour market opportunities for women" from the Federal
Employment Service's Institute for Employment Research
(IAB).

3.4.11 "Women and work" programme

In order to expressly push forward equal opportunities for women and men at
work, the Federal Government launched the "Women and work"
programme on the
basis of the resolution of the Federal Cabinet on 23 June 1999. This is not a
one-off, time-limited programme, but
an ongoing one which is regularly examined
and continued. After the programme has run for four years, all measures have
been implemented
or successfully launched. The core is the integration of
equality policy as an ongoing task in all areas of policy and work of the
Federal Government within the meaning of "gender mainstreaming". (The "Women and
work" programme is described in detail in Part II
of the Report at 11.5.1)

3.4.12 Report on equal pay

Although the principle of equal pay is clearly entrenched in German law,
unequal treatment still exists in the field of pay for women
and men. On
average, women earn 75.8% of the gross earnings of men. The figure in Eastern
Germany is almost 94%. Thanks to a legal
position which is now clear, there is
virtually no more direct wage discrimination against women, but many causes
which are frequently
very much hidden and which are correspondingly difficult to
prove.

On the basis of the autonomy of the partners to the collective agreements the
Federal Government has no direct possibility to regulate
on matters related to
wages. It has nevertheless taken it upon itself to make the contribution it can
towards reducing wage inequality
between men and women, and has submitted a
comprehensive report on the work and income situation of women and men in the
framework
of the "Women and work" programme. A scientific team has been
commissioned to draft this report.

The report provides information on trends in the work and income situation of
women and men and analyses their causes. It describes
the gender-specific
distribution of jobs and training places, promotion opportunities and the wage
and salary level of women and
men, including comparisons between the various
sectors of the economy. The report reaches the following conclusions:

Women have made progress in comparison to men when it comes to vocational
training. On the basis of better school and vocational training,
the work
orientation of women, and of mothers in particular, has increased dramatically.
However, young women remain underrepresented
in both in-company training and
technology-orientated occupations.

The work orientation of Western German women continued to increase in the
nineties, and reached its highest level so far in 2000 (employment
ratio 62.1%).
The employment ratio of Eastern German women, by contrast, fell in the nineties,
but is still much higher than that
of Western German women, at 72.2%.

An ever-larger share of women work part-time (part-time working ratio among
Western German women 42%, among Eastern German women 23%).
With a macroeconomic
volume of work which has fallen as a whole, the increasing inclusion of women in
the labour market in some cases
involved the redistribution of work among
women.

Women are still much less frequently found in senior positions or higher
hierarchy levels in companies than equally-qualified men.
In Western Germany, in
2000 almost twice as many men as women worked in senior positions: 20.3% of men,
but only 10.5% of women.
In the East, the proportions were much closer, but at a
lower level: 14.4% of men, 12% of women. In the age group of the under-thirties,
women and men are equally likely to be managers. As men advance in age, their
proportions in managerial posts increase. With women
the proportions in
managerial positions fall as their age increases. Interruptions caused by family
are likely to be a major reason
for this.

The income gap between women and men is much wider in the old Federal
Länder: Whilst in Western Germany a woman earns almost
75% of the average
income of a man, in Eastern Germany it is almost 94%.

If one takes a longer-term view, there is an approximation of the incomes of
women and men. However, this is progressing only slowly.
Western German women
were able in the period of twenty years to catch up by almost 3 percent, whilst
for Eastern German women the
gap improved in the nineties by almost 2
percent.

Women's gainful employment is largely concentrated on economic fields with
low earnings levels and in small and medium-sized enterprises
where people earn
less on average.

The increased employment ratio of women has not so far gone hand-in-hand with
an equal division of family work between women and men.
The gender-specific
family division of labour also leads to very different incomes and careers
during a working life. Men are almost
always in full-time employment,
irrespective of the form of family, whilst women with a partner/spouse very
frequently work part
time or at times not at all. These patterns are much more
common in Western Germany than in Eastern Germany.

The working times of women cumulated in a lifetime are much lower than those
of men. The cumulated gainful employment income of women
(born in 1936 to 1955)
is hence on average only 42% of men's income.

As a consequence of the different income biographies, the independent old-age
pensions of women in the East today only reach roughly
60%, and in the West less
than 50% of men's pensions.

The report analyses the many causes of the gender differences in gainful
employment and in income. Traditional models of gender roles
and of
co-habitation of men and women ("extra money earner/bread-winner model"), the
gender-specific division of labour within the
family, the conduct of women and
men in selecting their occupations, the provision of an adequate offering of
childcare, but also
the structure of a standard job, company recruitment conduct
and company organisation are named in this context.

According to the report, collective agreements are to be examined as to
whether in the grading systems the same criteria are always
used and not
individual criteria only for specific wage groups or fields of employment (e.g.
responsibility only for higher-value
groups and physical requirements only for
the field of work).

According to the view of female and male scientists, collective agreements
are to be structured such that employees are able to examine
the basis on which
the amount of their wage is calculated and on what the differences in wages
between various types of equivalent
work performed by women and men are
based.

The report was submitted on 24.4.2002 to the German Federal Parliament with a
statement by the Federal Government. The Federal Government
considers its stance
to have been confirmed in that the equality of women and men on the labour
market continues to be to be placed
at the centre of its social policy. It
considers it to be indispensable to continue to improve the training
opportunities of young
women in the future-orientated occupations of the
information society, and to expand the opportunities of women to find jobs and
to advance professionally. Women and men must be equally afforded the
possibility to reconcile work and family.

3.4.13 Women in the information society

Equal opportunities for women in the development and design of the
information society are major strategic goals of the Action Programme
entitled
"Innovation and jobs for the information society of the 21st Century". It is a
main goal of the Federal Government also
in Germany to increase the Internet
participation of women. The "Women onto the Net" programme organised by the
Federal Government
with Deutsche Telekom AG, the Federal Employment Service and
the magazine "Brigitte" has so far reached a total of more than 100,000
female
participants. With the nationally most successful portal for Internet courses
for women, access was much increased between
autumn 1999 and summer 2001. Whilst
in 1999 roughly one-third of women used the Internet, now more than 43% percent
of women use
the Internet. The successful private public partnership concept is
to be continued until 2003. With new female multipliers, in particular
those
women are to be approached who so far were not interested in using the Internet
because of unemployment, a low income or lack
of interest. This accounts for
almost 60 percent of women. With a targeted expansion in the local authority
area, the activities
are to be made more sustainable.

In addition, the Federal Government also promotes other Internet offerings
for women, such as the networking of equality commissioners,
non-governmental
organisations and networks of female experts. Making the possibilities and
opportunities of the Internet visible
to women was also a goal of the
international conference entitled "WOW – Women on the Web" in March 2001
in Hamburg.

In order to counter the danger of a digital divide in our society, the
Federal Government furthermore launched a demonstration and
educational campaign
in the framework of the "Internet for all" initiative with a variety of
activities for children, senior citizens,
people with disabilities and other
groups which have been underrepresented to date in the use of the new media.

Within this campaign, the "Women" working party of the Information Society
Forum has undertaken to describe the specific opportunities
and risks of the
information society for women and to develop an outlook for activity building on
this. The goal here– in addition
to support for innovative forms of work
for women and increasing the proportion of women in information technology
occupations and
courses of study – is to create a comprehensive,
women-friendly design for the information society in education, training,
further training and technology development. (On the field of training, cf.
I 3.2.3).

3.4.14 Women in the cultural and media field

Furthermore, the culture and media field plays a major role as to gainful
employment for women. The proportion of women among staff
in radio and
television is higher than 40%. As to managerial functions, at the public law
broadcasting companies theproportions of women have almost tripled since
1985 from 5% to 14%, but there are no women among the directors. The proportions
of
women among the members of the broadcasting councils had increased to 20% by
1999 (1994 17%) and in the administrative councils to
18% (1994 15%). The
increase in the proportion of women in the public law broadcasting companies is
however still much lower than
the trends in other bodies and parliaments. In
private radio and television providers, by contrast, 25% of managerial positions
are
already occupied by women even though there are no quotas issued there by
women's advancement plans, as opposed to the situation
in public law
broadcasting.

The situation in the field of training has considerably improved, where the
proportions of trainees averages 50%. In the broadcasting
companies, there are
almost without exception guidelines, service agreements or equality plans which
provide for an improvement of
the representation of women and constitute an
important foundation for the work of the equality commissioners.

Whilst women are well represented in the field of the fine arts – for
instance the growth in the number of female professors
at art academies more
than doubled between 1995 and 2000 – managerial functions in the sector of
cultural policy (cultural
officials) are in the main part occupied by men. In
the design occupations, a clear upward trend for women can be recorded in all
areas of work.

3.4.15 Women as entrepreneurs and business starters

The Federal Government has undertaken in its Action Programme "Innovation and
jobs in the information society of the 21st Century"
of September 1999 to
increase the proportions of women in company start-ups to at least 40% by 2005.
This should open up the potential
of women for the economy and provide greater
support to start-ups by women.

Female entrepreneurs and starter-uppers make a major contribution towards
growth, employment and innovation in the German economy.
Of the total of
3.6 million self-employed persons in Germany, 1,012,000 are women, which
corresponds to a proportion of almost 28%.
The number of self-employed women has
therefore remained the same in comparison with the previous year. The number of
self-employed
women has grown by 1,000 in the new Länder and East Berlin;
168,000 women were self-employed here in 2001. In the old Federal
Länder,
by contrast, the number has fallen by 1,000 to 844,000.

From 1991 to 2001 the proportion of women among the self-employed in the old
Federal Länder has increased from almost 26% to
almost 28%. The proportion
of female self-employed persons among enterprises in the East fluctuated from
1991 to 2001 between almost
28% and 30% (cf. table 3.7 in the Appendix)

The majority of self-employed women work in the service sector (558,000),
followed by wholesale and retail trade and hotels and restaurants
(329,000),
manufacturing and construction (78,000) as well as agriculture and forestry
(47.000). Roughly 160.000 self-employed women
are freelancers. Women wanting to
start up in business in Germany can rely on an extensive set of promotion tools
geared to the needs
of business starters of both genders. For instance, in 2002
from the special ERP fund of the Federation a total of roughly €
5
billion was provided for low-interest loans, which was added to by another
€ 9 billion by the own programmes of the Deutsche
Ausgleichsbank and
the Reconstruction Loan Corporation. The number of women whose start-up was
assisted has clearly increased since
1990: For instance, in 2001 in the old
Federal Länder more than one start-up in four that was promoted was carried
out by a
woman (25.1%) and in the new Federal Länder one in three (33.7%).
These proportions were still 21.3% and 25.6% in 1990.

The introduction of the so-called Start-up Money Program of the Deutsche
Ausgleichsbank (DtA) proved to be particularly helpful for
female business
starters, which specifically covers the capital needs of smaller start-up
projects (up to € 50,000). It is
used by a disproportionately high
number of female business starters. Since it was launched in May 1999, 20,703
seed-money loans
have been supported with a credit volume of € 654.3
million (as at: July 2002). The proportion of women here is 36.3 %, as
against
25.3 % in other DtA promotion programmes. From 1 October 2002, the Deutsche
Ausgleichsbank will supplement its promotion
programme with a microloan of up to
€ 25.000. The microloan is to help starters of small and micro
enterprises, which are common
in the service sector in particular, to make it
easier to become self-employed. More than 56% of self-employed women work in the
service sector. It can therefore be expected that women will especially benefit
from this programme.

Furthermore, there is a series of special advice offerings for female
business starters at local authority or Land level which are
supplemented by
offerings by women in networks or associations. In the virtual "Start-up centre"
of the DtA, novice male and female
entrepreneurs find answers to many economic
and legal questions. What is new is the "Female entrepreneurs special", which
specifically
targets female business starters. The Special provides not only an
overview of the funding and advice on offer, but also offers additional
valuable
information such as tips on surfing and books, as well as an overview of female
networks.

The "Power for Business Starters" programme being planned by the Federal
Government is to motivate and support entrepreneurs in their
commitment. The
programme is to use targeted structural measures, frameworks and public
relations work to help create a climate in
Germany that is friendly towards
women starting up in business. It is primarily important here to collate
statistical data on women
starting up in business, the impact of the information
society on how businesses are launched, and the start-up plans of women. There
is also a need to work on strengthening women's participation in the field of
technology-orientated start-ups (IT area, biotech business)
and in the use of
the potential of the Internet by female entrepreneurs. An "Information and
Service Centre for Business Start-ups"
is to move the measures along.

The Advancement Further Training Assistance Act
(Aufstiegsfortbildungsförderungsgesetz - "Meister-BAFöG") newly
introduced
in 1996 is also important for women, containing as it does
regulations concerning the participation of women with children in continuing
education programmes, and is intended to assist women's positive career
development. The reform of the "Meister-BAFöG" entered
into force on
1 January 2002, by means of which amongst other things, the family and
start-up component of the Act is to be strengthened.
Better promotion conditions
now apply to families with children and to single parents.

4. Women in agriculture and in rural areas

4.1 The situation of women in agriculture

In Germany, as in other industrialised nations, the number of persons
employed in agriculture has been on the decline for a long time.
While one in
four gainfully employed persons in the old Federal Länder still worked in
agriculture in 1950, the figure today
is only 3 out of 100. The number of
agricultural businesses with a farming area of 2 hectares or more dropped from
1.6 million to
roughly 406,200 in the same period. Because the lower collation
threshold has been changed, the information is only comparable to
a limited
degree. (Until 1997, agricultural businesses with 1 hectare of farming area
and more were included.) Nevertheless, domestic
agriculture still covers almost
90% of domestic food requirements.

Roughly 97% of agricultural businesses in Germany were one-person businesses
in 1999, the overwhelming majority of which were operated
as family businesses.
12.5% of the full-time family workers were female, whilst 45.6% of part-time
family workers were female.

As a national average, roughly 9% of all businesses were managed by women in
1999. Their proportion in the new Federal Länder
was roughly 20%, with the
figure for businesses of 50 hectares and more being roughly 14%. Roughly 353,000
women, or 37% of all family
members in agricultural businesses with the legal
form of a single enterprise, were given work in Germany in 1999. These women
perform
28% of the work to be done. This makes it obvious that almost no
agricultural business could survive without the help of its women.
Alternative
sources of income, such as the direct marketing of agricultural products or
"farmhouse holidays" are mostly the responsibility
of the women in the
business.

Structural change affects women in agricultural occupations first. The
initially considerable structural differences between the former
Federal
territory and the new Federal Länder have continued to reduce. Whilst in
the former Federal territory it was mostly
family workers who worked in
agriculture, in the new Länder persons from outside the family, as a rule
full-time employees,
were employed. The structural change that has taken place
here led to a considerable drop in the number of jobs, especially for women.
In
1999, roughly 54% of the unemployed from agricultural and forestry occupations
in the new Länder were women.

In order to counter this trend, alternative, national marketing projects were
developed. Against this background, the Federal Government
together with the
Land Rhineland-Palatinate implemented from 1996 to 1999 the pilot project of the
Deutscher Land-frauen-verband
(German Association of Rural Women). "Cooperative
national marketing of agricultural women's products" (Eifel –
Hunsrück
project), the aim of which was to develop and test a concept to
market agricultural products in cities (agricultural women's shops).

In order to open up services for senior citizens in rural areas as a measure
to improve income, from 1999 to 2001, the pilot project
entitled "services for
senior citizens in rural areas" was implemented and promoted by the Federal
Ministry of Consumer Protection,
Food and Agriculture.

Since the mid-nineties, it has been becoming more and more clear for rural
areas in the new Federal Länder that its future development
as an economic
and social area will depend heavily on the degree to which the people living
here are able to mobilise their own potential.
In order to counter the problems
faced by women on the labour market– and especially the resulting
many-layered social consequences
– the organisation of employment projects
is a major element of the work of rural women's organisations.

After the Federal Government's pilot project run from 1993 to 1996 "Rural
women help themselves" in Saxony-Anhalt, successfully supporting
rural women in
setting up their own agricultural businesses, since 1998 the Federal Ministry
for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens,
Women and Youth has implemented a pilot
project in the new Federal Länder "Rural women shape structural
developments in rural
regions – SELF", which it successfully concluded in
2001. In close cooperation with the Associations of Rural Women, the German
Association of Rural Women as the organisation responsible for the pilot project
supported women in rural areas, who are more seriously
affected than men by
unemployment, in projects orientated towards income, and in starting up in
business.

The project made a contribution towards creating women's jobs using the
existing potential and initiatives in rural areas, creating
a point of
crystallisation for women's ideas to start up in business in rural areas, and
developed new ideas for new businesses of
women and brought them to fruition. In
total, the pilot project gave birth to 26 start-ups with initially 40 jobs in
all areas, such
as crafts, services, wholesale and retail trade and tourism.

4.2 Promotion of employment possibilities for women in agriculture

New agricultural policy framework conditions, structural, technical, economic
and social change in agriculture and in rural areas
worsen on the one hand the
already tense work and income situation, and in particular that of women in
agriculture. On the other
hand, however, opportunities also exist to open up new
fields of work and income by means of reorientation. The goal is to give an
impetus to women in agriculture and in rural areas to develop and implement new
ideas and concepts to ensure or open up income and
employment possibilities.

There are questions as to whether it is helpful here to apply and use
information technologies. There is still a considerable qualification
and use
gap between urban and rural areas. This applies in particular to women in rural
regions. In order to remedy this structural
problem, the German Association of
Rural Women has used funding from the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs,
Senior Citizens, Women
and Youth to implement an IT project which is directly
practice-orientated. This project supplements the "Women and work" programme
with which it is not otherwise possible to fully reach women in rural areas. The
project provides that in each rural association
(there are a total of 22 rural
associations in Germany) an average of two women are trained to become IT
specialists in order to
use this at further training events for the rural
women's organisations at Land level. The trained specialists are also
responsible
in their Länder for carrying out commissions from rural women
and business starters to design a Website. This means for one
thing that the
specialists hence become business starters themselves, and for another that new
marketing channels can be opened up
for the regional business starters.

5. Women in public life

5.1 General remarks

In the elections to the 15th German Federal Parliament in September 2002,
women form the majority of persons entitled to vote, with
approx. 31.9 million
voters, as against roughly 29.3 million. In the period under report, it was
possible to increase the proportion
of women in political offices at all levels.
A balanced participation of women and men in political offices has not yet been
achieved.
The main reasons for this lie in the traditional allocation of roles
between women and men and the traditional living and working
conditions. Women
with family duties find it more difficult to undertake a political commitment
than men. So that work in the family
is not an obstacle to a political
commitment, the forms of political organisations and events must be geared more
to the living and
working conditions of women. The Federal Government is
attempting to use a group of measures to win over young women in particular
for
political commitment. This includes, for instance, female mentor projects
enabling young women to accompany female politicians
for a time during their
everyday work.

5.2 Participation at Federal level

The proportion of women in the parliaments has increased steadily in recent
years. For instance, in 2002 the highest proportion of
women to date in the
German Federal Parliament was reached since the Federal Republic was created. In
total, after the 1998 election
in the 14th Federal Parliament 30.9% of the
members were women, accounting for 207 women out of a total of 669 MPs. In
comparison
to this the number after the Federal Parliamentary elections in 1994
was 26.3 %. The proportions of female MPs however varies according
to party
membership. For instance, the proportion of women in the SPD is 35.23%, in
Bündnis 90/Die Grünen 57.45%, in the
CDU/CSU 18.37%, in the FDP
20.93% and in the PDS 58.33%. For the second time in the history of the Federal
Republic of Germany, a
woman was elected President of the Federal Parliament
(following Annemarie Renger, who held the post from 1972 to 1976) and held
the
second-highest state office from 1988 until 1998: Prof. Dr. Rita Süssmuth.
Three out of the five vice-presidents of the
14th German Federal Parliament are
women. For the first time ever, a woman, Prof. Dr. Jutta Limbach, also presided
over the highest
German court, the Federal Constitutional Court, from 1994 until
the spring of 2002.

In 2001, the Cabinet of the Federal Government included seventeen women: six
ministers (Federal Ministry of Justice, Federal Ministry
of Consumer Protection,
Food and Agriculture, Federal Ministry for Health, Federal Ministry for Family
Affairs, Senior Citizens,
Women and Youth, Federal Ministry of Education and
Research, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) and eleven
parliamentary state secretaries in a total of 16 ministries. Women also bear
responsibility as state secretaries in areas which were
previously the exclusive
domain of men (e.g. Federal Ministries of the Interior, Finance and Defence).

A woman was the Defence Commissioner of the German Federal Parliament for the
first time from 1995 to 2000.

5.3 Participation at Land level

The proportions of women in the Land Parliaments vary between 22.7% in
Bavaria and 41% in Bremen.

The members of the Länder Governments include roughly 40 female
ministers (with proportions varying between 8.3% in Saxony and
55.6% in
Schleswig-Holstein). Since May 1993, a woman has headed a Land government for
the first time (Schleswig-Holstein).

5.4 Participation at municipal level

In the elected representations of the cities and local authorities, as well,
the proportion of women continued to increase in recent
years. In local
authorities with 10,000 up to fewer than 20.000 inhabitants, women have already
a proportion of city and municipality
council members averaging 21.04%. One can
also establish that the larger the municipalities are, the more female
candidates manage
to reach the city or municipality council. For instance, women
in municipalities with 500,000 and more inhabitants have a proportion
on the
city or municipality council averaging 36.26%. In several large cities, women
head the administration.

5.5 Participation in trade unions

The trade unions combined in the German Trade Union Federation (DGB) counted
in 2000 a total of 7,772,795 members – of whom
2,369,560 were women. The
number of female members of the trade unions which are members of the DGB fell
from 30.9% in 1997 to almost
30.4% in 1999. The trade union ver.di emerging from
the 2001 merger of DAG, DPG, HBV, IG Medien and ÖTV had a total of
2,991,656
members at the start of 2002, almost half of whom were women,
accounting for 1,422,327 members. Some sectors of ver.di have a high
proportion
of women because of the sectors. For instance, in the areas of trade, banks and
insurance, there are 286,825 female and
145,798 male members.

In 2000, two trade unions (GEW and HBV) had a chairwoman. When the services
trade union ver.di was founded in 2001, the former HBV
chairwoman became the
deputy chairwoman of ver.di.

Two out of five members of the Federal Executive Committee of the German
Trade Union Federation are women, making a proportion of
40%. There are no
female Land Trade Union Federation chairwomen, but women account for a
proportion of 40% of deputies. The proportion
of women in the District Executive
Committees (to be referred to in future as Regional Executive Committees) is
15.4%.

It should be stressed that in the ver.di service trade union women are given
their own structures and possibilities to work. Gender
democracy is one of the
core tasks; the concept of equality of women and men in industry and in society
is to be realised through
all decisions, and in appointments to trade union
bodies. In elections, women must be taken into account in line with their
proportions
of the membership.

6. Institutions and authorities for promoting the equal rights of women
and men

6.1 Commissioners for equality and women's affairs in authorities and
public institutions

Many Federal and Länder authorities, as well as public institutions,
nowadays have agencies which also, or even exclusively,
deal with matters
relating to equal rights for women in the sphere of work and responsibility of
their institutions.

6.2 Equality commissioners of the Federation

The rights and duties of the equality commissioners of the Federation have
been given concrete form and made more intense by the new
Federal Equal
Opportunities Act (Bundesgleichstellungsgesetz), and their field of tasks has
been expanded. This is accompanied by
clear regulations regarding their
obligatory release from other official tasks.

With their right to object, the equality commissioners are given an
effective, formal legal remedy against rulings and measures of
their agencies
which they consider to be counter to equality. By means of the express statutory
opening of the appeals procedure
to the administrative courts in the case of
fundamental differences of opinion regarding the rights of the equality
commissioners
and the equality plan, the equality commissioners of the
Federation will be able in future to have fundamental matters relating to
equality clarified by a court without the previous risk of their application for
a court ruling being rejected as inadmissible for
lack of a legal basis. As
specialists for matters related to equality, the equality commissioners are
involved in the procedures
for appointments to bodies within their units unless
specific equality sections are established. They also contribute towards
measures
intended to protect against sexual harassment at work.

6.3 Interministerial Working Group

The equality commissioner of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior
Citizens, Women and Youth is the chairwoman of the Interministerial
Working
Group (IMA). In the IMA the equality commissioners exchange their experience,
process supra-authority questions related to
equality, develop ideas for
improving the working conditions of the female staff in their departments and
undergo further training
together in the interest of their work. This is a
matter of reducing disadvantages, staff development and reconciliation of family
and work, as well as a large number of other topics.

6.4 Equality facilities in the Länder

The development in the authorities of the Länder is similar to that at
Federal level.

All the Länder governments have equal opportunities institutions.
However, they are integrated in the administration in different
ways. 13
Länder have established Ministries for Women's Affairs in recent years,
namely Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen,
Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, North
Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, the Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and
Schleswig-Holstein.
Baden-Württemberg has a State Secretary for women's
affairs in the Ministry of Social Affairs, while Thuringia has a commissioner
of
the Thuringian Land Government for the equality of women and men, and
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has a women and equality commissioner
of the Land
Government.

The tasks and powers of the Länder equality agencies are as follows:

• recommendations and proposals on drafts, as well as examining
statutes, ordinances and measures of the respective Land Government;

• cooperation with women's organisations, as well as with other
organisations and associations concerned with women's affairs;

• cooperation with appropriate agencies of the Federation and the other
Länder, as well as with all authorities which may
implement measures
related to the equality of women and men.

The activities of the Länder equality agencies cover all policy fields.
They develop special measures in the fields of schools,
education, training,
working life, vocational advancement of women, reconciliation of family and work
and violence against women.

The Conference of Ministers and Senators of the Länder for Equal
Opportunities and Women (GFMK) was constituted in 1991 in Potsdam.
It meets
annually with a different chairperson each time. The Federal Government is
represented as a standing guest. The GFMK is
an institution for mutual
information and coordination, the discussion of proposed legal provisions at
Federal and Länder levels,
the elaboration of joint statements and
resolutions, and agreement on supra-regional activities.

The GFMK is an important tool to accompany the policy of the Federal
Government – in particular regarding the policy areas of
labour market,
family law, old-age pensions, promotion of science and violence against
women.Working parties of all the Federal Länder are developing
supra-Land equality-promoting proposals to the Federal Government. These
are
submitted via a Federal Land to the Federal Council or to the other specialist
conferences of the Federal Länder –
as for instance the Conference of
Ministers of Economics or Ministers of Justice.

6.5 Municipal equal opportunities boards

20 years after the establishment of the first municipal equal opportunities
board in Cologne in 1982, there are now roughly 1,900
municipal equal
opportunities boards in Germany. Many municipalities have an equal opportunities
commissioner, as do the rural districts,
including all those in the new Federal
Länder. The appointment of equality commissioners has now become
institutionalised and
they have grown quickly in number in the past years. The
widespread acceptance of equal opportunities commissioners is reflected
in the
fact that many other municipalities have also decided in favour of establishing
an agency of this kind, even though they are
not legally obliged to do so.

The legal foundations for the establishment of municipal equal opportunities
boards and women's offices differ from one Federal Land
to another. Most of the
Federal Länder now have a statutory basis for establishing municipal equal
opportunities boards. They
are embedded in the respective Land equal
opportunities statutes, local authority constitutions or municipal regulations.
The effectiveness
of their work depends on their competencies and on the
available personnel and funds. Important prerequisites for effective work
include, among other things, supra-departmental or supra-divisional powers of
intervention, early involvement in personnel-related
decisions and in all
administrative decisions connected with equal opportunities issues, as well as
the right to independent public
relations work in coordination with the top
levels of the administration. Municipal equal opportunities boards also have the
possibility
of providing concrete help in individual cases. At the same time,
they can provide important stimuli for structural changes in the
community and
can promote the advancement of women in the municipal authorities
themselves.

At Länder and Federal levels, the municipal equal opportunities boards
have joined forces in working groups in order to improve
their opportunities for
exerting political influence.

6.6 Registry of the Federal Working Party of Women's Offices and Equal
Opportunities Boards

Since January 2000, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens,
Women and Youth has been promoting the establishment
of a Registry of the
Federal Working Party of Women's Offices and Equal Opportunities Boards within
the framework of a three-year
project. The Registry, headquartered in Berlin, is
the national coordination agency of the Network Office for Municipal
Commissioners
for Women's Affairs and Equal Opportunities and their national
spokeswomen.

6.7 Commissioners for women's affairs and equal rights at institutions of
higher education

The Federal conference of commissioners for women's affairs and equal rights
at institutions of higher education in Germany is a merger
of all commissioners
for women's affairs and equal rights from the universities, Technical Colleges,
art colleges, the church institutions
of higher education and the clinics which
are connected to institutions of higher education.

This merger serves to implement joint goals, especially in the field of
advancement of women and in reducing disadvantages for women
at institutions of
higher education. The Federal conference represents the interests of women at
institutions of higher education
at Federal level and towards the European
Union, where Federal competences are affected. In this respect, it cooperates
with other
institutions, societies and associations.

6.8 Commissioner for equal opportunities on the labour market

Since the amendment of the labour promotion law (Book III of the Social Code)
by the Job AQTIV Act, which entered into force on 1
January 2002 (cf.
Part I at 3.4.7) the previous commissioners for women's interests at the
employment offices have been given a new
name. They are now called commissioners
for equal opportunities on the labour market, and represent the employment
office in important
questions related to the advancement of women and the
equality of women and men on the labour market, as well as the reconciliation
of
family and work in both genders.

This includes in particular matters related to the vocational training, the
initiation of a vocation and the advancement of women,
and of women and men
re-entering work after a family phase, as well as with regard to flexible
working hour arrangements.

The commissioners for equal opportunities on the labour market exist in all
employment offices, Land employment offices and in the
headquarters of the
Federal Employment Service. They advise and support their units in specialised
effecting of tasks in a manner
geared to women and families. They help develop
the business policy concepts of the employment office on equality of women and
men
on the labour market.

7. Means of enforcing equal rights

The lives of women and men differ in substantial ways in most fields of
public and private life, even if many legal amendments have
removed special
discriminatory positions and exclusions affecting women. Measures and policies
targeting people are not gender-neutral
as a rule because of the extant
differences in the reality faced by women and men, and must hence be examined as
to their impact
in order to avoid incorrect planning and to take account of the
interests of both genders. In order to keep an eye on the situations
of both
genders, the strategy of gender mainstreaming has been developed which contains
a modern, gender-geared approach.

7.1 Significance of gender mainstreaming

Gender mainstreaming imposes an obligation on all organisations and
individuals involved in the design of political and administrative
concepts and
measures to take account of the different situations and interests of women and
men in all projects from the outset.
This means a systematic (re-)organisation
process on the part of the political arena and the administration, an equality
policy check
of the conduct of the administration that is directed both inwardly
and outwardly. Taking account of the interests of women and men
within the
administration, as well as addressees of standards and measures, is a central
task of a modern, needs- and service-orientated
administration and is in its
vital interest in order to achieve greater staff satisfaction and more accurate
answers to its citizens'
questions.

Gender mainstreaming here does not replace the need for targeted advancement
of women. On the contrary: Gender mainstreaming is expressly
to be understood
and implemented only as a supplement to specific measures for the advancement of
women. The main difference between
the two policies lies in the players involved
and the conceptual approaches. The previous policy on the advancement of women
or equality
presumes a concrete equality policy problem. A solution is developed
for this concrete problem through the persons and administrative
units who are
responsible for equality policy. Gender mainstreaming, by contrast, tackles all
policy decisions, including those which
at first sight appear not to have a
gender-specific dimension. All these measures are regarded from a gender-related
perspective,
meaning that the possibly different starting conditions or impact
of the measure on both genders must be investigated and ascertained.
The
implementation of gender mainstreaming makes it evident that politics are not
gender-neutral. Whether we are talking about statutes,
architecture and town
planning, health-related matters, education, research projects, working hours
arrangements in enterprises,
assessment guidelines in the public service or the
Radiation Protection Ordinance (Strahlenschutzverordnung) – everywhere the
preconditions for women and men are different, everywhere the measures have a
different impact on the genders, frequently to the
disadvantage of women or of
other groups whose lives differ from the classical male role model.

Specific policy for the advancement of women and gender mainstreaming are
hence two different strategies to achieve the same aim,
namely the equality of
women and men and the continual reduction of gender-specific discrimination. In
the view of the Federal Government,
both strategies are necessary to achieve the
goal and complement one another.

7.2 Framework conditions – political and legal requirements

With its Cabinet decision dated June 1999, the Federal Government recognised
the equality of women and men as a continual guiding
principle and decided to
promote this task as a cross-sectional task using the strategy of gender
mainstreaming. In the Joint Rules
of Procedure (Gemeinsame
Geschäftsordnung) of the Federal Ministries, accordingly the obligation on
all departments has been
established to observe the mainstreaming approach in
all policy, legislative and administrative measures of the Federal Government
(section 2 of the Joint Rules of Procedure).

In accordance with section 2 of the Federal Equal Opportunities Act
(Bundesgleichstellungsgesetz - BGleiG) all staff in the Federal
administration,
in particular management, are obliged to promote the equality of women and men;
this task is an ongoing guiding principle
in all task areas of the units, as
well as in cooperation between units.

The background, in addition to the Platform for Action of the 4th World
Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, includes the
legal obligation of
the EU Member States from the Treaty of Amsterdam. Through the entry into force
of the Treaty of Amsterdam on
1 May 1999 the implementation of gender
mainstreaming became legally binding on the Member States of the EU;
Article 2 and Article
3 para. 2 of the EC Treaty oblige all
Member States to implement active, integrated equality policy within the meaning
of gender
mainstreaming.

7.3 The implementation strategy of the Federal Government

In order to implement the Cabinet decision of the Federal Government, a
senior-level interministerial steering group was established
in May 2000 under
the management of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens,
Women and Youth. Each department undertook
to appropriately further train its
staff and to plan a first pilot project with which the gender mainstreaming
approach is implemented
in practice. The long-term goal of the steering group is
to work out lists of criteria and checklists for all types of political
and
administrative activity in all departments of the Federal Government. The
concrete projects are to give rise to an Equality Manual
with transferable,
structural manners of conduct (checklists, work aids, handouts, etc.) for the
everyday implementation of gender
mainstreaming in all types of action of the
administration.

In the 34 pilot projects now organised by the Federal Government,
transferable conduct is being developed for a routine, gender sensitive
procedure for all working procedures and fields of the ministerial
administration. The projects contain the entire spectrum of political
and
administrative decisions and range from activating third parties (e.g. by means
of promotional guidelines) through statutory
control to intra-departmental
decisions (such as organisation of administrative procedures and staff
development).

For instance, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women
and Youth has launched five different projects which
radiate into different
areas:

• As an intra-administration project, a concept is being developed for
the staff development of the department from a gender
mainstreaming point of
view.

• In conceiving, tendering, awarding contracts and implementing
research projects, both as regards the research project itself
and concerning
the research institutions, gender-specific aspects should always be taken into
account.

• In the third project of the department, using the Assistance for the
Elderly Structures Act (Altenhilfestrukturgesetz) a prospective
examination of
the consequences of legal provisions is carried out using questions related to
the effect of the Act on both women
and men.

• In order to include gender-specific questions in the political and
administrative planning of the Federal Government as early
as possible, in
cooperation with the Federal Chancellery checklists are being drafted for
drawing up submissions to Cabinet in accordance
with the gender mainstreaming
approach.

• In the field of youth policy, the organisations promoted from the
children and youth plan in coordination with the Federal
Ministry for Family
Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth are to develop practical tools to
implement the gender mainstreaming
concept in child and youth assistance.

The following can be named as further examples of pilot projects from other
departments:

• The Foreign Office will amongst other things examine the
gender-specific starting conditions and impact of measures in the
field of
humanitarian assistance and will include the gender aspect as an item in its
examination of the work of its legal department.
A guideline for the
introduction of the "gender-specific impact" examination criterion has already
been drafted. The item "Gender
Issues in Crisis Situations" has been integrated
in the preparatory courses for civil peace staff. The gender perspective is also
taken into account in deploying funds from the multilateral health fund, as well
as in the 'International Communication Technology
Task Force'. Further pilot
projects within the Foreign Office include a project from the Global Issues
department on gender-sensitive
design of humanitarian assistance work, collating
the state of implementation of gender mainstreaming within the EU, revising the
internal assessment guidelines from the point of view of gender mainstreaming
aspects and including gender mainstreaming in basic
and further training
(meaning staff training). In the near future, a project will also be launched
which examines gender-specific
differences in the work of the protocol
department as work which has a strong effect on third parties.

• The Federal Ministry of Education and Research, with its "New Media
in Education" programme, will integrate the new media
permanently and on a broad
basis as a teaching, learning and work aid in basic and further training and
with the pilot project will
push forward the development of educational software
for schools, vocational basic and further training and institutions of higher
education from a gender point of view.

• The Federal Ministry for Health will be using the gender
mainstreaming approach for its conception of prevention measures
in healthcare
for children and young people.

• In the framework of its pilot project, the Federal Ministry for the
Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety has
developed and
implemented a gender impact assessment for the reform of the law on radiation
protection, in particular the Radiation
Protection Ordinance. The checklist
developed for this examination procedure and geared to the specific needs of the
basic law on
radiation protection was then generalised and is in future to apply
to all measures in the field of environmental policy, and to
legislative
procedures in particular.

• The Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Housing will try the
gender mainstreaming approach in the Federation-Länder
programme entitled
"The Social City". Here, the differing interests and needs of women and men in
the field of urban development
and building are to be contributed.

The first results and tools are already available from the pilot projects
which are still to be adopted in this legislative period,
such as a handout on
the implementation of gender mainstreaming in research projects, as well as a
working aid on the implementation
of gender mainstreaming in legislation.

The agreed awareness-creation and further training measures to implement
gender mainstreaming in the Federal administration have also
been commenced. As
practical experience grows, the first results of the work, checklists and
handouts, are to flow into the additional
further training courses so as to
increase the ability of staff at working level to work efficiently and to
provide practical assistance.

As a first measure in public relations work, in April 2002 an Internet
appearance of the Federal Government was designed and released
under the
management of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women
and Youth in cooperation with the other departments
involved (at
www.gender-mainstreaming.net). There, in a comprehensible and playful way, the
strategy of gender mainstreaming is introduced
and explained. The implementation
strategy and the practical steps of the Federal Government are illustrated; by
using links on their
Websites, the departments can present their pilot projects
and other activities in a manner which attracts public attention. An
accompanying
brochure was also published on 1 July 2002.

In October 1998, the Federal Government set itself the goal of following new
paths in the policy on disabled persons and undertaking
all the efforts possible
to promote self-determination and equal social participation for disabled
persons and giving application
to the ban on discrimination for disabled persons
entrenched in the Basic Law, "No one may be disadvantaged because of his
disability".

Statutory measures have been taken which fulfil the right of people with
disabilities to support and solidarity as a part of accepted
and universal civil
rights, as a precondition for the goal of enabling persons with a disability to
live a self-determined life.

For disabled women, the change in the policy on disabled persons also
entailed a large number of improvements aiming to support them
in a wide variety
of situations and to help them to participate better in working life.

8.1.2 Legal amendments

With a Ninth Book of the Social Code entitled "Rehabilitation and
participation of disabled persons" (SGB IX) which has been in force
since
1 July 2001, persons with and threatened by disabilities will be enabled to
determine their own concerns largely themselves
and on their own responsibility.
In doing so, by virtue of the special benefits for medical rehabilitation and
for participation
in working life and the life of society they will be provided
with the support and solidarity that they require in order to avoid,
compensate
for or overcome disability in order to reach equal participation in society.

It is the first Federal statute which, in the process of gender
mainstreaming, takes account of the double effect suffered by women.
With this
Act, regulations were created which improve the participation of women in
measures of vocational rehabilitation. It is
a matter of ensuring equal
opportunities for disabled girls and women in vocational rehabilitation and in
working life, including
by facilitating part-time working, and in particular by
the vocational goals, including part-time working offerings that are suitable,
close at hand and practicable in the framework of the benefits for participation
in working life. Their situation is not only to
be improved by compensating for
disadvantages, but equal participation should be created in life within society
and in working life.

The many initiatives and activities of this Act which are intended to create
as permanent as possible integration into working life
also benefit women with
serious disabilities. The Federal Employment Service organises time-limited
national and regional labour
market programmes to reduce unemployment among
persons with serious disabilities, special groups of persons with serious
disabilities,
in particular seriously disabled women, and to promote the
offering of training places for serious disabled persons. The specialist
integration services working as new tools of labour market policy have the task
of taking account of the special needs of seriously
disabled women by
distinguishing among the specialist integration services.

Considerable significance also attaches to starting courses/offerings for
girls and women suffering from or threatened by disabilities
serving to
strengthen self-awareness in the list of the supplementary benefits to medical
rehabilitation and to participation in
working life. The background to the
introduction of this benefit is the realisation that such courses are among the
most important
prevention measures against sexual violence and harassment.

Furthermore, the obligation is anchored in the Ninth Book of the Social Code
that private and public employers must have at least
five percent of seriously
disabled persons among their staff. Seriously disabled women are to receive
particular consideration here.
There is also the obligation incumbent on the
employer to conclude with the seriously disabled persons' representation in
cooperation
with the agent of the employer a binding integration agreement
containing regulations on staff planning, workplace design, design
of the
working environment, work organisation and working hours, which benefits
seriously disabled women. For instance, special regulations
are provided in
personnel planning to employ a suitable proportion of seriously disabled women.
Furthermore, employers are obliged
to promote the establishment of part-time
jobs. The employers are supported here by the integration offices – the
new name
of the former Main Welfare Agencies makes their task clear. Persons
with a serious disability have a right to part-time employment
if the shorter
working hours are necessary because of the nature or gravity of the disability.

By means of this Act, the strengthening of the rights of seriously disabled
women and their special representations of interest is
also given special
attention in several areas.

The duties to report provided for in the Ninth Book of the Social Code will
be carried out in future in a gender-specific manner.
For instance, the Federal
Government has to inform the legislative bodies of the Federation by the end of
2004 on the situation of
disabled women and men. In addition, Federal statistics
on seriously disabled persons are kept in a gender-specific manner. Furthermore,
the rehabilitation organisations must explain in a report on their experience
with the establishment of the joint agencies which
proportions of jobs are
occupied by seriously disabled women. Finally, the list of employers on the
seriously disabled persons they
employ and the disabled persons with the same
status is kept in a gender-specific manner. This means that it will be easier in
future
to make well-founded statements on the social situation of disabled
women.

Also in the new Federal Act on Equal Opportunities between Women and Men in
the Federal Administration and in the Courts of the Federation
(Federal Equal
Opportunities Act) a regulation was introduced that takes account of the double
effect suffered by disabled women:
Similar to the wording of section 1
second sentence of the Ninth Book of the Social Code it is the declared aim of
the Federal Equal
Opportunities Act to take account of the special concerns of
women with disabilities and women at risk of disability in the Federal
service
in measures to advance women, as well as measures for better reconciliation of
family and work.

Furthermore, the Act on Equal Opportunities for Disabled Persons (Gesetz zur
Gleichstellung behinderter Menschen - BGG) entered into
force on 1 May
2002. Whilst the Ninth Book of the Social Code governs the concerns of disabled
persons as to the world of work, the
Act on Equal Opportunities for Disabled
Persons aims to open up to disabled persons possibilities for self-determination
and equal
participation in all other areas of public and social life. To enforce
equal rights for women and men, the special concerns of disabled
women are to be
taken into account and existing discrimination eliminated (section 2 BGG
Disabled women). Furthermore, it is made
clear that special measures are
permissible here to promote the de facto enforcement of equal rights for
disabled women and to eliminate
existing discrimination.

8.1.3 Promotion of projects

Separate projects have been and are being organised for the target group of
disabled girls and women.

• In order to ascertain the situation of disabled women, the Federal
Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and
Youth commissioned in
1996 a survey entitled "Situation of women with disabilities – Asserting
life and interests: LIVE". The
research project worked out results on the
current situation of women with disabilities, the objective and subjective need
for support
and improvement of the situation, the difficulties and possibilities
of the political representation of interests. This project was
concluded in the
"LIVE – Asserting life and interests – women with disabilities"
symposium, which was organised from
5 to 7 May 1999 in Freiburg.

• The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and
Youth in 1999 commissioned the project "Federal organisation
body for disabled
women" (organised by: bifos e.V.) with the aim in mind to go into more detail in
investigating the situation of
disabled women, to analyse the specific need for
change in various areas of life and to help improve the situation. In addition
to
surveys on various problems, up-to-date information was provided for disabled
women regarding initiatives and projects, such as advice
agencies, women's
refuges, self-defence courses, possibilities for vocational rehabilitation and
national specialist conferences
organised on selected topics.

• In 1999 the four-year pilot project started entitled "Dealing with
sexual self-determination and sexual violence in housing
facilities for young
people with mental disability". It is focused on mentally disabled women in
homes. The goal of this project
is the development and trial of a (sexual)
pedagogical curriculum on questions of sexual self-determination and sexual
violence in
facilities for young people with a mental disability. The action
approaches or handouts to be drafted target carers, governors and
the
inhabitants with a mental disability. All participants are hence to gain the
competence to recognise where limits have been exceeded
in everyday life and to
prevent attacks, or if such have taken place to take the required, appropriate
measures.

• In the context of the legal project "The situation of women with
disabilities in social and vocational rehabilitation –
obstacles and
preconditions in the current legal situation" the Federal Organisation Agency of
Disabled Women carried out a variety
of surveys to ascertain the situation,
including a survey on the situation of disabled women in the vocational
promotion and vocational
training works, a survey among providers and trainers
of/for self-assertion and self-defence courses for girls and women, a survey
on
gender-specific assistance/care for women with a disability and a survey on the
aids and assistance available to mothers with
physical and/or sensory
disabilities.

8.2. Women in old age

8.2.1 The situation

In the years and decades to come, the demographic development in Germany will
lead to broad changes in the population structure, and
hence also to the social
and individual living conditions. Whilst the proportion of the under-15s
among the population is falling, the proportion of the over 65-years-old is
undergoing considerable
growth. At the end of 2000, the 82.2 million inhabitants
of the Federal Republic of Germany included roughly 8.4 million women and
5.3 million men of 65 and older; together, these account for 16.6% of the
population (cf. table 1 in the Appendix). The number of
the very old, at 90
and older, has risen from 20,000 in 1950 to roughly 466,000 residents of Germany
in 1998. According to model
calculations of the Federal Statistical Office, the
proportion of the population over 65 will increase to roughly 30% by 2040.

Life expectancy in Germany is continuing to increase. The average life
expectancy for a new-born boy is 74.4 years, for a new-born
girl 80.6 years.
However, the life expectancy of older people has also increased. Thus, according
to the current deaths table for
1997/1999, a 60-year-old man may on average
expect to live another 19 years, as against 18.7 years according to the old
death table.
For a woman of the same age, another 23.3 years of life emerge as
against the previous figure of 23.1 years.

The high proportion of women as against the elderly generation is on the one
hand the consequence of two World Wars, and on the other
of the higher life
expectancy of women.

8.2.2 Equality policy goals for elderly women

One goal of equality policy in the Federal Republic of Germany is to
strengthen elderly women's self-esteem, to encourage them to
understand age as a
new phase in life in which they can make their interests come true and help
shape their environment. The Federal
Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior
Citizens, Women and Youth supports individual senior citizens' organisations,
including the "National
Network of Elderly Women", which issued from the "Women
in old age" working party to prepare the 4th World Conference on Women and
was
founded by women from the age of 45. The goals are to build up networks in all
Federal Länder, to exert an influence on
policy for elderly women, to avoid
isolation through activities and commitment and to achieve cooperation with all
institutions involved
in work with women and the elderly, which is to be
implemented by contacts with and via initiatives for elderly women. Furthermore,
the establishment of regional networks is to be supported, joint projects
implemented and cooperation at national and international
level striven for.

8.2.3 Social security for elderly women

In the past decades, the situation of women in view of the relationship
between work in the family and gainful employment has changed.
Many women are
employed, particularly on a part-time basis, and also while bringing up
children. The further increase in gainful
employment of women will improve the
level of their own pension expectancies, but this is insufficient in many cases
to guarantee
an independent pension without derived elements.

Women's income in old age is composed today largely of:

• own pension expectancies (average in the West € 458, in
the East € 620)

• surviving dependant's pension (average: in the West € 536,
in the East € 524)

• additional pension (company and private).

Women's independent pensions are still insufficient. The following reasons
are important for this:

• The classical old-age pension is acquired via the statutory pensions
insurance where the amount of the pension emerges from
the contributions,
dependent in turn on income, and on the duration of gainful employment. An
old-age pension related to gainful
employment is structurally unfavourable for
women since they frequently interrupt or completely end their gainful
employment, take
on part-time employment or enter into insignificant employment
that is free of insurance.

• In addition, the derived surviving dependant's pension is no longer a
reliable old-age pension for women in light of the increasing
divorce
figures.

• A company pension only insufficiently insures women because they are
largely only offered by large enterprises and are linked
to the duration of
being in the enterprise.

This is being countered with the new regulations on the pension reform, which
entered into force in 2001, and an incentive for quick
entering into/resumption
of gainful employment after childcare time (three years for each child brought
up) has been created, as
well as in addition to childcare times also the low
wages subsequently earned by women in the phase of bringing up children (e.g.
caused by part-time working) have been upgraded in terms of the law on pensions.
Furthermore, equalisation for women is created who
are not even able to take up
part-time work because of bringing up at least two children.

The pension expectancies of persons bringing up children who are in gainful
employment during the first ten years of their child's
life but primarily
exercise this employment in the shape of part-time working because of bringing
up the children, and who hence
earn less than average, are increased in value in
calculating their pensions in accordance with the principles of the so-called
pension
in accordance with the minimum income. Here, the individual income is
increased by 50% to a maximum of 100% of the average income
if a total of 25
years are available with pension law times. This creates an incentive to keep
gaps in the insurance biography caused
by bringing up children as short as
possible and to at least enter into part-time employment soon after the
childcare time.

This advantage also benefits bringing up persons who because of the care of a
child in need of long-term care in many cases do not
take up gainful employment.
Here, too, the obligatory contribution period to be recognised for the carer in
calculating the pension
is increased in value by 50% but up to a maximum
of the value emerging from 100% of the average income – until the child in
need of long-term care reaches the age of 18.

A pension credit of income points is granted as compensation after the time
of bringing up children ends (in other words when the
child has reached the age
of four) until the child turns ten, because of simultaneously bringing up two or
more children, to persons
who are generally unable to take up part-time
employment, and for that reason do not receive a higher evaluation of
contribution
times. This credit as a rule corresponds to the maximum promotion
with the child-related higher valuation of contribution times for
persons
bringing up children who are in gainful employment (in other words one-third of
an income point per year).

8.2.4 Elderly female migrants in Germany

The group of elderly female migrants in Germany will require greater
attention in future. As with the German population, the life
expectancy of
foreign women is much higher than that of men. According to the Sixth Family
Report of the Federal Government, the
surplus of men among the foreign
population changes to a surplus of women from roughly the age of 70. Since the
seventies, the proportion
of the over 65s as against the total population has
more than tripled from 0.7% to 2.5%. Whilst in the past elderly migrants and
widows in particular mostly returned to their home countries, they now spend
their twilight years in Germany because of the formation
of larger family
networks. Only roughly 25% of female migrants live alone in old age, this
proportion being lower than with the German
population.

Elderly migrants face a cumulation of risks. For instance, more than half of
female Turks of the first generation of immigrants have
no school-leaving
qualification, and 40% never went to school at all. 60% of them work in
unskilled and semi-skilled occupations,
with the consequence that a large number
of them rely on social assistance in old age. A further problem is the poorer
state of the
health of foreign senior citizens in comparison to German senior
citizens. Against the background that this group of persons is to
be allocated
to the groups who are further from education, and that the language of
communication in most cases is still the mother
tongue, there are also
considerable communication problems, in particular causing difficulties with
medical treatment.

8.3 Female asylum-seekers in Germany

In 2001, 88,287 persons applied for asylum in Germany, of whom 30% were girls
and women. Most asylum-seekers in 2001 came from Iraq,
Turkey and the former
Yugoslavia. In the European comparison, Germany ranked second in the number of
asylum applications received,
with 88,287, after the United Kingdom with 88,300
and before France with 47,260.

The general administrative provision to the Aliens Act entered into force on
7 October 2000. The explanations relating to section
53 of the Aliens
Act take greater account than was previously the case also of female-specific
reasons for flight. In particular,
gender-specific violations of legal
interests, such as systematic rapes or other serious forms of sexual violence,
are expressly
mentioned.

When women are interviewed who claim gender-specific persecution, in addition
to specially trained deciders, interpreters are now
also used who have attended
an appropriate psychological training course. The courses for the interpreters
focus on the following:

• the sociocultural and gender-specific aspects of escape and
traumatisation,

• the special situation of traumatised people and the analysis and
evaluation of the role of interpreters during an interview
in sensitive cases.

The foreign-language leaflet handed out when an asylum application is made
"Important notice, – Notification for first/consequential
applicants on the duties to cooperate and general procedural information"
– has been added to. Female asylum-seekers are already
informed on filing
their applications that in any case a female decider is available where needed
for the interview, and that the
Federal Office also offers specialised female
deciders for the area of gender-specific persecution.

On 26 April 2001 a specialist conference on the topic of "Traumatised
refugees, psychopathology and the need to act; Practical experience
and
scientific basis in diagnosis and treatment" took place at the Federal Office
for the Recognition of Foreign Refugees in Nuremberg.

Part: II: The provisions of the Convention and their implementation in the
Federal Republic of Germany

Part II describes the measures undertaken to implement the provisions of
the Convention which have been taken since 1998. In other
respects, reference is
made to the existing CEDAW National Reports.

1. Article 1: Definition of "discrimination"

Article 1

For the purposes of the present Convention, the term "discrimination
against women" shall mean any distinction, exclusion or restriction
made on the
basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the
recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women
irrespective of their marital
status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental
freedoms in the political,
economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.

In the Federal Republic of Germany, equality of men and women is guaranteed
by the Constitution as a basic right (Art. 3 para. 2 of the Basic Law):
"Men and women have equal rights." The state promotes the implementation of de
facto equality for women and men and works towards the elimination of existing
disadvantages.

In addition, Art. 3 para. 3 of the Basic Law states: "No one may be
prejudiced or favoured because of his sex, his parentage, his
race, his
language, his homeland and origin, his faith or his religious or political
opinions. No one may be prejudiced because of
his disability."

The definition of the term "discrimination against women", as given in Art. 1
of the CEDAW Convention, reflects the general background
on which the German
legal system and the specific regulations in the individual legal spheres are
based. Legislators, the executive
power and the judiciary are bound by this
basic right as directly applicable law. Every woman and every man whose right is
violated
has access to the courts of law. Public law disputes, particularly
those concerning discriminatory actions on the part of the administrative
authorities, are handled by the administrative courts, or by the social security
tribunals and fiscal courts sitting as specialised
courts. The labour courts
afford legal protection against unjustified unequal treatment in working life.
Finally, a woman or man
who has been affected can also lodge a complaint of
unconstitutionality to the Federal Constitutional Court, asserting that her or
his basic right to enjoy equal rights has been violated by a law or by some
other sovereign act. However, special rules of procedure
have to be observed in
this context.

2. Article 2: Parliamentary measures for the elimination of
discrimination against women

Article 2

States Parties condemn discrimination against women in all its forms,
agree to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a
policy of
eliminating discrimination against women and, to this end, undertake,

a) To embody the principle of the equality of men and women in their
national constitutions or other appropriate legislation if not
yet incorporated
therein and to ensure, through law and other appropriate means, the practical
realization of this principle;

b) To adopt appropriate legislative and other measures, including
sanctions where appropriate, prohibiting all discrimination against
women;

c) To establish legal protection of the rights of women on an equal basis
with men and to ensure through competent national tribunals
and other public
institutions the effective protection of women against any act of
discrimination;

d) To refrain from engaging in any act or practice of discrimination
against women and to ensure that public authorities and institutions
shall act
in conformity with this obligation;

e) To take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against
women by any person, organization or enterprise;

f) To take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify or
abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices
which constitute
discrimination against women;

g) To repeal all national penal provisions which constitute
discrimination against women.

Reference is made here to the amendment of the Basic Law which was dealt with
in the Introduction and re paras. 3 and 17 of the Consideration
of
Reports.

2.2 Act on Equality and Act on the Advancement of Women

The following additions can be made to update the previous Report:

The new Federal Act on Equal Opportunities between Women and Men in the
Federal Administration and in the Courts of the Federation,
which was described
in detail in Part I 2.5, has been in force since 5 December 2001. The
following provisions can be added here
on the elimination and prevention of
discrimination:

In order to avoid wherever possible legal disputes as to whether specific
provisions or actions constitute direct or indirect discrimination
against
women, clarifying legal definitions were included in section 4
subsection 7 of the Federal Equal Opportunities Act for the
Public Service
of the Federation. They correspond to European Community law. Accordingly,
direct discrimination is present if women
and men are treated differently in an
agreement or measure because of their genders, without compelling reasons,
unless the agreement
or measure is based on the nature of the activity to be
carried out and a specific gender is an indispensable precondition for this
work. Indirect discrimination against women is present if provisions, criteria
or procedures appearing to be neutral discriminate
against much higher
proportions of women unless the provisions, criteria or procedures are
appropriate and necessary and are justified
by reasons not related to
gender.

Section 9 subsection 2 of the Federal Equal Opportunities Act, in
harmony with the caselaw of the European Court of Justice, bans
taking account
of specific selection criteria that are indirectly discriminatory towards women
in personnel and organisational decisions.
For instance, interruptions in
gainful employment, short active service or low number of years in employment,
reductions in working
hours or delays in completing individual courses of
training because of meeting family duties, including the income situation of
the
spouse, of the life partner, of the companion, as well as time burdens caused by
caring for children or relatives in need of
long-term care and the intention to
avail oneself of the possibility of reducing one's workload, may not be taken
into account in
selection decisions.

2.3 Act Amending the Act on Assistance for Pregnant Women and
Families

The following additions can be made to update the previous Report:

Since November 1999 there has been with the approval of the Mifegyne
preparation as a medicine the possibility to implement an abortion
also in the
early phase of pregnancy with a medicine as an alternative to abortion by means
of surgery. Nothing has changed as to
the legal preconditions and the prescribed
procedure (advice procedure) which women must undergo if abortion is to be
carried out
by means of a medicine rather than by undergoing surgery.

It is still the case that pregnancy terminations (abortions) are
fundamentally punishable for all those involved accordance with section
218
of the Criminal Code (Strafgesetzbuch – StGB), the exceptions listed in
the last Report continuing to apply.

2.4 Other laws

Other laws for the advancement of women and to improve equal rights and
eliminate discrimination against women are described in the
following Articles
and/or in Part I. A list of all laws relating to women's issues can be found in
Appendix II.

3. Article 3: Measures for promoting and safeguarding the full
development of women

Article 3

States Parties shall take in all fields, in particular in the political,
social, economic and cultural fields, all appropriate measures,
including
legislation, to ensure the full development and advancement of women, for the
purpose of guaranteeing them the exercise
and enjoyment of human rights and
fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men.

The measures applying here are those of the Federation and the Länder
which are appropriately listed in Part I of the Report
and in
Appendix II.

In other respects, the information provided on this in the last Report
continues to apply.

4. Article 4: Special measures in accordance with Article 4

Article 4

(1) Adoption by States Parties of temporary special measures aimed at
accelerating de facto equality between men and women shall not
be considered
discrimination as defined in the present Convention, but shall in no way entail
as a consequence the maintenance of
unequal or separate standards; these
measures shall be discontinued when the objectives of equality of opportunity
and treatment
have been achieved.

(2) Adoption by States Parties of special measures, including those
measures contained in the present Convention, aimed at protecting
maternity
shall not be considered discriminatory.

Most of the measures listed in Appendix II can be regarded as special
measures as defined by Art. 4 of the Convention. The addition
to the Basic Law,
the Equal Rights Acts, the Act on the Advancement of Women, research projects
and measures for the advancement
of women, for instance on the labour market, in
politics and in the public service, all serve this purpose. Some of these have
already
been dealt with in the previous Report, either under the respective
Articles or in the general section.

In a similar way to modern statutes of the Länder for the advancement of
women to attain equality, which have been confirmed
by the European Court of
Justice, the new Federal Equal Opportunities Act also contains provisions for
discrimination-free access
of women to interviews and selection procedures, to
the permissible discrimination-free content of interviews, to the quota related
to individual cases in staff selection decisions, and to further quotas in the
case of invitations to selection talks, selection
committees and in the equality
plan, to qualification determinations, as well as to non-permissible, indirectly
discriminating criteria
with staff selection decisions which are to be regarded
as special measures within the meaning of Article 4 of the Convention.

The same applies to the new provisions for equality plans in the Federal
Equal Opportunities Act. The equality plans are being developed
to become
effective tools of modern staff planning and development – and this not
only in times of employment growth. When
jobs are being cut, the equality plans
must provide that the proportion of women at least remains the same. The
duration of application
of the equality plans and the adjustment intervals are
being extended in order to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy involved in "equality
controlling" within the administration.

5. Article 5: Elimination of stereotyped roles and promotion of
the common responsibility of women and men for the upbringing and development
of
their children

Article 5

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures

a) To modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women,
with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices
and customary and all
other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the
superiority of either of the sexes or
on stereotyped roles for men and
women;

b) To ensure that family education includes a proper understanding of
maternity as a social function and the recognition of the common
responsibility
of men and women in the upbringing and development of their children, it being
understood that the interest of the
children is the primordial consideration in
all cases.

Article 6

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures, including legislation,
to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation
of prostitution of
women.

The following additions can be made to update the previous Report:

5.1 Reconciliation of family and work

The reform of the Federal Act on Child-raising benefit, which entered into
force on 1 January 2001, makes a major contribution towards
improving the
reconciliation of family and work. The new provisions give parents more
possibilities in planning the division of tasks
within the family and create
more flexible transitions between family and work. Furthermore, the Act on
Part-Time Working and Fixed-Term
Employment Contracts which entered into force
on 1 January 2001 gives employees of companies with more than 15 staff a legal
right
to reduction of the weekly working hours if no operational reasons exist
opposing this. Hence, parents with older children are also
enabled to reconcile
work and family.

For the public service of the Federation, Part 3 of the new Federal
Equal Opportunities Act contains provisions going even further
to make it easier
to reconcile family and work as permitted by internal considerations, namely the
obligation to offer part-time
jobs or special working hour models, such as a
sabbatical year or a working hour account. Requests for part-time working may
only
be rejected if "compelling" operational concerns counter them. In its model
role as a public employer, the Federation is also complying
with these special
provisions for its own public service.

5.2 New image of fatherhood

In the context of these reforms, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs,
Senior Citizens, Women and Youth initiated a campaign entitled
"More scope for
fathers". This communication offensive supports men who wish to take more time
for their families and provides information
on the statutory regulations
regarding the reconciliation of family and work. Together with enterprises which
support fathers in
their increased commitment within the family, publicity is
carried out to create a new image of men and fathers in our society. In
order to
place the measures and processes that have been initiated in the campaign on a
permanent footing, a three-year advice project
is currently being implemented
with enterprises, associations and local authorities to implement
family-friendly measures, and father-friendly
measures in particular.

A major contribution towards the discussion on role distribution in families
is provided by the recently concluded study entitled
"The role of the father in
the family" which investigated the father's role in the development process of
families. The study demonstrates
the influence of early socialisation
experience, gender role orientations, schooling and the quality of one's own
partnership on
differing ideas of fatherhood.

5.3 Combat violence against women

The following additions can be made to update the previous Report:

Only the estimates named in the Fourth Report are available to suggest the
extent of violence against women. In order to obtain precise
data on the extent
of violence against women, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior
Citizens, Women and Youth commissioned
a representative survey in March
2002.

5.3.1 Plan of Action of the Federal Government

On 1 December 1999, the Federal Cabinet adopted the Plan of Action of
the Federal Government to combat violence against women. This
Plan provides for
the first time a comprehensive overall concept concerned with structural changes
for all levels of the campaign
for the combat of violence.

Such an overall concept of necessity not only includes the competences of
various Federal departments, but also areas of competence
of the Länder and
local authorities. Therefore its implementation is dependent on close
cooperation between the respective competent
Federal Ministries, and also on
targeted cooperation between the Federation and the Länder which had
previously not existed
in this shape in combating violence against women in
Germany.

In order to monitor the implementation of the Plan of Action – in
addition to the existing national working party on the combat
of trafficking in
women – the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women
and Youth established on 12 April
2000 a Federation-Länder working
party to combat domestic violence against women, in which not only the competent
Federal and
Land Ministries, but also local authorities, non-governmental
organisations and in particular women's refuges are represented. This
working
party has met since then on a quarterly basis.

The Plan of Action covers the fields of prevention, legislation by the
Federation, cooperation and networking, work with offenders,
awareness-development measures and international cooperation.

Overall social prevention as understood by the Plan of Action covers all
suitable measures intended to:

• create an atmosphere within society in which violence against women
is disapproved of,

- This disapproval includes women having to be effectively protected against
male violence and the offenders having to expect the
state to react. -

• remedy the imbalance between men and women and create equality in all
areas of life,

• break the circle of violence which can span several generations.

5.3.2 Legislative measures

Particular significance attaches to legislative measures. The protection of
women by the law must be offered by all fields of law:
criminal law, civil law
and public law. The goal is to put an end to violence against women and to
guarantee their safety.

The Federal Government takes the view that both offenders of domestic
violence and offenders who commit their offences in "public"
are to be
prosecuted and must expect, all state sanctions. Domestic violence against women
is not a family matter into which the
state may not intrude.

The Federal Government considers its focus in legislative measures to lie
currently in civil law. The "Act to Improve Civil Court
Protection against Acts
of Violence and Unwelcome Advances as well as to Facilitate the Allocation of
the Marital Dwelling in the
event of Separation" (Gesetz zur Verbesserung des
zivilgerichtlichen Schutzes bei Gewalttaten und Nachstellungen sowie zur
Erleichterung
der Überlassung der Ehewohnung bei Trennung) entered into
force on 1 January 2002. It creates a clear legal basis for ordering
civil court
protection, such as bans on contact, approaching and harassing with intentional
and unlawful violations of the body,
health or freedom of a person, including
threatening such violations. Furthermore, it contains the basis for a claim for
the –
at least temporary – allocation of a jointly used dwelling if
the person violated had a long-term joint household together
with the offender.
The relevant procedural and enforcement law has been revised to ensure that the
victims in question can obtain
justice quickly and easily.

The Act is accompanied by public relations activities carried out by the
Federal Government which were developed in the Federation-Länder
working
party to combat domestic violence against women. This includes, amongst other
things, standards for further training of all
groups of occupations concerned,
describing the necessary framework conditions to implement the Act, model
applications, leaflets
and the like.

In connection with this Act, the Federal Länder are currently examining
whether and if so how police law and police protection
measures can support and
accompany civil law legal protection. Bremen, Hamburg, North Rhine-Westphalia
and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
have already reformed their police statutes,
while Baden-Württemberg and Berlin have announced their intention to reform
their
police and administrative law.

Protection against domestic violence by means of the Act to Protect against
Violence (Gewaltschutzgesetz) is supplemented by the Act
to further Improve
Children's Rights (Act to Improve Children's Rights -
Kinderrechteverbesserungsgesetz) which has been in force
since 12 April
2002. This Act made it expressly clear that a person may also be removed from a
dwelling lived in by a child (or from
the close vicinity of the child) if they
commit violent acts against this child. Such violent acts against a child are
frequently
also felt by the mother as psychological violence and serve amongst
other things also to intimidate women. This supplement also made
sense in order
to protect mothers since it has now been made clear for family court practice
that they can also use this removal
with child abuse cases, since it creates a
distance, and hence effectively prevents further violence.

The Act Reforming section 19 of the Aliens Act (Gesetz zur Neuregelung
des § 19 Ausländergesetz) entered into force on 1
June 2000.
This legal amendment improves the legal position of foreign spouses, and in
particular of many women. In accordance with
the new section 19 of the
Aliens Act, on separation and dissolution of the marriage foreign spouses have
an independent right to
remain already after two (previously after four) years
during which marital co-habitation existed on German territory. In the event
of
the death of the spouse, no periods are attached to the right of the spouse to
remain; marital co-habitation must merely have
existed for some period on German
territory.

Equally, the hardship clause has been redesigned in accordance with which an
independent right to remain may also be issued prior
to expiration of the period
stated. In accordance with the previously applicable version, it was not
necessary for a return to the
country of origin to be unacceptable for the
foreign spouse after separation. Now, the spouse must be enabled to remain in
order
to avoid particular hardship.

The administrative provision to the Aliens Act, which entered into force on
7 October 2000, contains provisions both on gender-specific
prosecution and
on dealing with victims of trafficking in human beings. If specific facts or
other indications suggest that a person
obliged to exit is affected by
trafficking in human beings, on principle a period of at least four weeks is to
be set for voluntary
exit. The persons in question may seek advice and
assistance from special advice agencies.

With the 1999 Act to Entrench Settlements between Offenders and Victims in
Criminal Law (Gesetz zur strafverfahrensrechtlichen Verankerung
des
Täter-Opfer-Ausgleichs) the public prosecution offices and courts are
specifically given the task at each stage of the proceedings
of examining a way
to reach a settlement between the accused and the victim of a criminal offence
(section 155a of the Code of Criminal
Procedure [StPO]). The criminal
justice system is not only to be able – as was already possible – to
reward a successful
settlement between offenders and victims or compensation for
damage. Rather, in the interest of reaching a settlement between the
accused and
the victim, which creates legal peace, it should take the initiative to actively
promote such a settlement in suitable
cases. Depending on the individual case, a
successfully implemented settlement between offenders and victims may lead to
discontinuation
of the proceedings. For instance, the list of conditions and
instructions of section 153 a of the Code of Criminal Procedure was
opened.
Discontinuation of proceedings is possible on condition that the accused makes
serious efforts to reach a settlement with
the victim and thereby completely or
largely makes good his/her offence or seeks to make it good (section 153 a
subsection 1 No.
5 of the Code of Criminal Procedure).

The Act to Outlaw Violence in Education (Gesetz zur Ächtung der Gewalt
in der Erziehung) entered into force on 3 November 2000.
This affords the
child a right to be brought up without violence of any sort, not only without
mistreatment. It stresses even more
strongly that violence cannot be justified
by educational purposes.

This new provision not only strengthens the legal status of the child, but
also achieves an alteration in awareness among parents
without threatening the
parents with criminal law sanctions. This legal amendment was necessary in order
to counter the still widespread
use of violence within families. Surveys prove
that victims of parental violence are more likely to use violence themselves
later.
It must therefore be made as clear as possible that violence is not a
suitable means of bringing up children.

The legal amendment was accompanied by the campaign of the Federal Ministry
for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth entitled
"More respect for
children". This measure served to call attention to the legal amendment, to draw
the attention of parents and society
to the paradigm change in education.
Parents are to be supported in solving conflict situations, and situations in
which the strain
is too much, without resorting to violence, meaning also that
they should be made familiar with alternatives. The campaign was launched
on
19 September 2000 and was terminated at the end of 2001. It consisted of a
multimedia umbrella and founding by practical projects
and grass-roots
activities.

With regard to the "Act to Protect Workers against Sexual Harassment at Work"
a questionnaire was circulated and evaluated among the
superior Federal
authorities. It revealed that there are still shortcomings as to the
implementation of the Act, in particular in
the field of further training.
Service agreements on the topic of sexual harassment are the exception. At the
request of the Federal
Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and
Youth, several Federal Länder have launched similar questionnaires in
their
Land administrations. The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens,
Women and Youth has commissioned research into
legal facts in order to monitor
the implementation of this Act in company practice, as well as by caselaw.

5.3.3 Measures accompanying legislation

Legal provisions by themselves are not sufficient. Rather, cooperation
between the different authorities and the non-governmental
assistance agencies
involved must be added.

This kind of cooperation to effectively combat violence against women has no
tradition in anti-violence work in Germany. It is only
in the past few years
that the need to cooperate has been increasingly recognised and that the
willingness to be involved in such
projects has also increased.

To improve cooperation between the various institutions and projects, the
plan of action recommends the installation of intervention
projects in line with
the US model. Here, the various competent governmental and non-governmental
departments work together on the
basis of a joint concept with the declared goal
of improving the protection of those concerned and of making offenders face
their
responsibility.

In Berlin and in Schleswig-Holstein the Federal Government is promoting such
pilot projects at Land level. At the same time, it has
commissioned academic
assistance for all intervention projects and intervention agencies in Germany
which also investigates the work
with the perpetrators carried out in the
context of the projects.

For effective lobby work favouring women at risk of and affected by violence,
but also for better, faster transfer of information,
as well as for more
targeted deployment of resources (division of labour) it is helpful that offers
to help are networked nationally.
The increasing national networking of
anti-violence projects is a new development in Germany which is enthusiastically
greeted in
the plan of action. The Federal Government is funding the networking
agencies of the women's refuges, the emergency and advice agencies
against
trafficking in women and violence in the migration process. Furthermore,
national networking meetings are being promoted.

The statutory provisions must be consistently applied in line with
legislation. This is not possible without corresponding awareness-building
on
the part of the players. The plan of action expressly recommends the planning of
further training for all vocational groups concerned
at supra-disciplinary
level, and also to consult female staff members from the advice field as
speakers.

Such basic and further training, drafting guidelines/instructions as well as
the use of special units are in the field of competence
of the Länder and
are already being carried out in many instances. Particular progress has been
made here in the police area.

In the Federation-Länder working group to combat domestic violence
against women, the corresponding experience is exchanged and
successful models
recommended for copying. This also includes drafting further training standards
for all vocational groups concerned.

Currently, with the financial support of the Federal Government, female staff
from the field of advice for women are being trained
to be able to become
speakers in the various further training measures.

The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth has
published a four-volume series of further training for
female staff in women's
refuges.

In order to create an awareness among individual vocational groups, the
awareness-creation of the general public must be added. In
this field, too, the
Federal Government puts forward a series of measures in its plan of action, such
as to improve the data situation
by redesigning police criminal statistics and
implementing a representative survey of violence against women. A special
postage stamp
on the topic of violence against women was issued and had a
positive response.

The Federal Government is supporting the paradigm change which is underway in
the field of work with offenders: Whereas the previous
political measures almost
exclusively focused on the women concerned, the conviction is becoming more
common today that the way in
which we deal with offenders must also change
considerably: They must be convinced that what they did was wrong by means of
consistent
state intervention – both in criminal law and civil law
terms.

Special offender courses are being tried and evaluated by researchers in
intervention projects., A specialist international conference
took place in
Oldenburg on 5 December 2001 with the support of the Federal Ministry for
Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and
Youth at which the various (European)
concepts were discussed for such work with offenders.

5.3.4 Prevention and combat of sexual abuse of children and
juveniles

Protection of children and juveniles against all forms of violence is highly
significant for the Federal Government. In particular,
and from the outset, it
has made an active contribution towards the combat and prevention of commercial
sexual exploitation of children
at national and international level.

The measures shown below to prevent and combat sexual abuse unrestrictedly
concern girls, who account for more than two-thirds of
the victims.

Under the management of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior
Citizens, Women and Youth, the Federal Government implemented
the Declaration
and the Plan of Action of the first World Congress against Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children in July 1997
by submitting in Stockholm a Working
Programme against Child Abuse, Child Pornography and Sex Tourism. It covered a
national activity
framework with measures for education and prevention, the
legal field, international criminal prosecution and victim protection.

An interim report from March 1998 on intrastate implementation steps
supplemented the Federal Government's Working Programme with
additional future
measures. In January 2001, this Report was extended once again by means of
measures, in particular in the legal
area, which had been implemented by
December 2000.

In the run up to the second World Congress against Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children held from 17 to 20 December 2001 in
Yokohama/Japan, the
Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth held the
National Follow-up Conference
entitled "Commercial sexual exploitation of
children" in March 2001. Here, the stocktake of previous successes and
shortcomings was
dealt with in the fight against sexual abuse of children, and
strategies were drafted for even more effective combat.

In November 2001, the Federal Government undertook an intensive commitment
towards the "Multilateral conference organised by the Council
of Europe" on the
topic of "Protection of children against sexual exploitation" in Budapest. It
submitted a report in which it presented
the intra-state implementation of the
Declaration and of the Plan of Action of the First World Congress. The Report
contains a list
of measures concentrating on education and prevention,
legislation and international criminal prosecution and victim protection.
The
conference in Budapest ended with the acceptance of a Regional Plan of Action
for Europe and Central Asia.

In the context of the second "World Congress against Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children" held in December 2001 in Yokohama,
it became clear
that greater awareness creation concerning the problems of sexual exploitation
of children has been achieved in recent
years and that many measures have been
taken. Nevertheless, further national and joint international measures are
needed on prevention,
victim protection and criminal prosecution in order to
effectively combat the sexual exploitation of children. With the closing
document,
the "Yokohama Global Commitment 2001", the community of states once
more confirms the goals and obligations of the first World Congress
in 1996 in
Stockholm and suggests the most important steps for the future to combat the
world-wide problem of sexual exploitation
of children.

Parallel to these national efforts, the Federal Government also increased its
international cooperation and coordination in the fight
against commercial
sexual exploitation of children, in particular by means of closer cooperation
with the destination countries of
sex tourism with child abuse, improved
internationally coordinated criminal prosecution and involvement in
international action and
information networks.

Germany has ratified ILO Convention No. 182 dated 17 June 1999 concerning the
Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination
of the Worst Forms of Child
Labour; the Act on the Convention is dated 11 October 2001.

The Federal Government has contributed intensively towards the drafting of
the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights
of the Child on the
sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, approved by the
General Assembly of the United Nations
on 25 May 2000. The Federal Republic
of Germany signed this Optional Protocol as long ago as September 2000.
Ratification and domestic
implementation are in preparation.

The Council of the European Union adopted a Decision to combat child
pornography on the Internet on 29 May 2000. This Decision aims
to prevent
and combat the production, processing, distribution and possession of child
pornography on the Internet. It contains measures
to promote effective
prosecution and to improve prevention, but no substantive criminal
provisions.

The Federal Republic of Germany was one of the first countries which signed
in December 2000 the United Nations Convention against
transnational organised
crime and its Protocol to Prevent, Combat and Punish Trafficking in Persons,
Especially Women and Children.
Here, too, ratification and domestic
implementation are in preparation.

The Federal Government in particular pushed forward the drafting of the
Council of Europe's Convention on Cyber Crime. Germany signed
this Convention at
the end of 2001. It contains for one thing provisions for creating a common
substantive criminal law minimum standard
in the criminal law on computer and
telecommunication crime, including a provision on the punishability of child
pornography crimes
committed using computer systems (offering, distributing,
producing, possessing, etc., child pornography). Furthermore, it creates
a
common foundation for effective, fast criminal law investigation in computer
systems and an improvement in international cooperation
on relevant criminal
matters.

The Federal Government is convinced that the signing and ratification of this
international legal tool by as many states as possible
(the Convention is also
open for signing by non-members of the Council of Europe) will make it much
easier to combat such crimes.

Furthermore, at the session held on 31 October 2001 the Council of
Europe adopted the draft of a Recommendation of the Committee of
Ministers to
member States on the protection of children against sexual exploitation.

It should also be mentioned that in August 2002 in the European Union a
framework decision on combating trafficking in human beings
entered into force
with which an approximation of the criminal provisions of the Member States is
to be achieved. A Framework decision
on combating the sexual exploitation of
children is currently still being negotiated.

There has been encouraging progress in Germany in recent years in the fight
against sexual abuse of children. Major legislative measures,
especially in 1997
and 1998, led to further improvements in the criminal law protection of children
against sexual exploitation.
The Working Programme of the Stockholm World
Congress also helped to set the stage for this movement. However, these
legislative
measures were also the continuation of a trend that had already been
initiated in 1992 in the shape of the 26th Act to Amend Criminal
Law
(Strafrechtsänderungsgesetz) (sections 180b and 181 of the
Criminal Code – Trafficking in human beings) and in 1993
with the
27th Act to Amend Criminal Law (Punishability of sexual abuse of children
committed abroad irrespective of the law of the
place of commission;
punishability of the possession and the acquisition of child pornography).

The 6th Act to Amend Criminal Law dated 26.1.1998 further improved criminal
law protection for children against violence, in particular
sexual violence. For
instance, the punishments which may be imposed for serious cases of sexual abuse
of children and bodily harm
were considerably tightened up. In particular,
sexual abuse for purposes of the production and dissemination of a pornographic
portrayal
of children is a new offence introduced in the Criminal Code. Over and
above this, criminal law protection against the removal of
minors and against
trafficking in children was improved.

The Act to Combat Sexual Crime and other Dangerous Criminal Offences (Gesetz
zur Bekämpfung von Sexualdelikten und anderen gefährlichen
Straftaten)
which also entered into force in 1998 expands the area of application of the
imposition of preventive detention to cover
major crimes and certain criminal
offences against sexual self-determination, as well as against physical
integrity, and others.
At the same time, the Act creates the absolute maximum of
the placement duration, also with first placement in preventive detention.
In
view of the suspension of the remainder of a prison term on probation, the Act
now expressly requires that the suspension occurs
only if it can be justified
taking account of the security interest of the public. The basis used by the
courts to take such a decision
has been improved by the fact that a report must
be commissioned with particularly recidivist offenders. Furthermore, the Act
contains
improvements in the field of managerial supervision and provides for
treatable sexual offenders' obligatory transfer to a social
therapy facility
after a transitional period from 1 January 2003.

With the reform of youth protection dated 14 June 2002 adopted by the German
Federal Parliament, a supplementary criminal law provision
for youth protection
was also introduced against abusive portrayals of children and juveniles in an
unnatural, gender-stressed physical
stance. These portrayals hence count among
the media posing a danger to youth which are required by force of law to be
subjected
to the distribution, sales and advertising restrictions contained in
the Act.

On the basis of victimological knowledge, in 1994 criminal law lapse
provisions were amended in favour of the victims of violent sexual
acts. The
lapse of specific criminal offences against sexual self-determination rests
until the victim has reached the age of 18.
The lapse periods of ten years in
the case of child abuse and 20 years then running with sexual coercion and rape
respectively give
the victims sufficient time to initiate criminal
prosecution.

Victim protection is also aided by the possibility introduced in the 1998
Victim Protection Act (Zeugenschutzgesetz) of using video
technology in criminal
proceedings. Stressful repeat questioning sessions or the frequently oppressive
hearing atmosphere of the
courtroom and the confrontation with the tormentor can
be avoided. Improving the possibilities of accessory prosecution incidental
to
criminal proceedings as well as the provisions to appoint counsel for the
witness for questioning or of council for the victim
at the cost of the state
for the proceedings leads to a further improvement in the rights of the
victim.

The Act Introducing Reserved Preventive Detention (Gesetz zur Einführung
der vorbehaltenen Sicherungsverwahrung), which entered
into force on
28 August 2002, in particular further improves the protection of women and
children against dangerous sexual offenders.
The Act provides that the court
handing down the ruling in certain cases may reserve placing in preventive
detention, and that the
final order only takes place if it is ascertained after
some of the sentence has been served that the convict is dangerous.

The Federal Government's First Periodic Security Report reveals that after a
rise in the number of sexually motivated offences until
1997 the numbers have
fallen in total and have remained relatively constant in recent years. The
increase until 1997 is presumably
due to a rise in the willingness to file
charges as public awareness increased. The police criminal statistics (PKS) of
the Federal
Criminal Police Office report a total of 15,117 cases of sexual
abuse of children in 2001 (sections 176, 176a and 176b of the Criminal
Code).
This is a reduction of 3% as against the previous year. Furthermore, children in
1,014 cases (as against 1,009 cases in 2000)
were affected by sexual abuse of
charges, exploiting an official position or trust-based relationship (sections
174 and 174 a-c of
the Criminal Code) as a victim.

The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth
supports education and prevention work by supporting individual
measures, as
well as through financial support of central Federal organisations. In addition,
in order to provide further training
for specialists, many events, specialist
congresses, conferences for specialists and working parties improving the
exchange of experience
and the further development of concepts on the topic of
sexual abuse of children have been promoted. Examples which can be named
here
are:

• Publication of the brochures "Sexual abuse – Prevention and
Help", "Sexual violence against children and juveniles –
Who can help?",
"Comic on education and prevention",

• Publication of the special letter to parents entitled "Making
children strong for life – preventing sexual abuse",

• Promotion of the film project "I have the confidence to say YES and
NO",

• Publication of the LoveLine CD-ROM - a multimedia education about
love, partnership and sexuality for juveniles from the age
of 14 – in
which the topics of harassment, attacks, abuse and rape are discussed,

• Since 1998 the national expansion of the children and youth crisis
telephone lines has been promoted for free, anonymous advice
for children and
juveniles, and since March 2001 also the establishment of telephone advice for
parents,

• Since 1999 the project of the German Child Protection Centre "The
Virtual Child Protection Centre – Interactive Assistance
for Children and
Parents" has been supported, which serves as an information, contact and advice
level. The concept is linked to
the work of the child protection centres. It is
understood as a communicative, innovative approach making it simpler for
children,
juveniles and parents to find the path to assistance facilities,

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures, including legislation,
to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation
of prostitution of
women.

The following additions can be made to update the previous Report, although
it should be emphasised that the subjects of regulation
described in the
previous National Report are still applicable:

6.1 Measures for combating trafficking in children and women, child
pornography and sex tourism

In the 2015 Programme of Action on Combating Poverty, which the Federal
Government submitted in April 2001 as a result of the United
Nations Millennium
Declaration, it is confirmed that the causes of poverty also lie in the lack of
equal rights between the genders.
One of the activities which the programme
provides for is to eliminate trafficking in women, forced prostitution and
prostitution
of children. In developing countries, the Federal Government wishes
to offer children and women at risk special support to offer
them improved
chances in terms of employment and a future outlook.

The German Development Service for instance advises the COIN organisation in
the Dominican Republic which educates women about the
reality of emigration and
helps them to look for alternative income. In order to support women who have
already been affected, the
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and
Development has so far contributed DM 1.48 million towards programmes of
SOLWODI e.V.
(Solidarity with Women in Distress). These programmes are to enable
women from developing countries and South Eastern Europe on their
return to
their home countries to build up a secure life either by taking up dependent
employment or by starting in self-employment.
Furthermore, from the funds
provided by the Programme of Action a project of the ILO and IPEC (International
Programme on the Elimination
of Child Labour) is being funded to prevent
trafficking in children and juveniles in the Balkan region and in Ukraine.

The Federal Government attaches considerable significance to effective
prosecution of trafficking in human beings, as well as of child
pornography and
sex tourism. It can be observed that these crimes – especially also on a
cross-border basis – display
a large number of facets, such as the
addition of information technology as a "place of commission". It is virtually
impossible to
provide information on the numerical extent since the grey area in
question is very large. In accordance with the police criminal
statistics, in
2000 in Germany 1,197 victims of trafficking in human beings came to the notice
of the police, of whom 1,174 were
women.

A total of 926 persons (almost exclusively women) were registered in 2000 as
victims of trafficking in human beings (section 180b
and section 181
subsection 1 Nos. 2 and 3 of the Criminal Code). In 1999 there
were a total of 831 (of whom 23 were men), in 1998
a total of 189 (of whom 16
were men). According to a survey carried out by the Federal Criminal Police
Office (Situation Report 2000
on Trafficking in Human Beings) in 2000 81.5% of
the victims came from the states of Central and Eastern Europe, including 115
from
Ukraine (approx. 12.4%), 140 from Russia (approx. 15.1%) and 162
from Lithuania (approx. 17.5%).

In the context of the European Union, of the Council of Europe, the G 8
and the UN, as well as in many other international working
parties and events,
the Federal Government is working actively to oppose trafficking in children and
women, child pornography and
sex tourism. It can be observed that these topics
have attracted increasing attention internationally in the past years, a trend
which is supported by the Federal Government. For instance, the Foreign Office
together with the OSCE on 15/16 October 2001 organised
an international
conference entitled "Europe against Trafficking in Human Beings" during which in
particular, recommendations to
improve victim protection were drafted.

Furthermore, the Federal Government played an active role in the negotiations
on the Protocol to Prevent, Combat and Punish Trafficking
in Persons, Especially
Women and Children, as a supplement to the United Nations Convention against
transnational organised crime,
and signed the Protocol as long ago as December
2000. The preparations for the ratification procedure have been initiated.

Reference is made to the information provided at 5.3.4 concerning further
international measures, such as the example of the framework
decisions on
combating trafficking in human beings and on combating the sexual exploitation
of children and child pornography.

Further measures in the context of the EU included the drafting of an EU
promotion and exchange programme for persons responsible
for measures against
trafficking in human beings and sexual exploitation of children, and the
expansion of the field of work of EUROPOL
to include trafficking in human
beings.

The Federal Government reports annually on its activities to combat
trafficking in women and children to the Secretary-General of
the United Nations
for his Report to the General Assembly. The Federal Government has the Reports
of the UN Special Rapporteur on
"Violence against Women" translated into German
and published, and makes them available to all interested parties free of
charge.

6.2 Establishment of the "Trafficking in women" working party

In light of the highly complex problems involved in trafficking in women,
which relate to a variety of different policy areas, addressees
and levels, the
Federal Government established a national working party on trafficking in women
in the spring of 1997 which meets
on a roughly quarterly basis. Its members
include the Federal Ministries involved in each case, the specialist conferences
of Land
Ministers, the Federal Criminal Police Office and non-governmental
organisations.

The most important results of this working party are:

• to draft and publish information material for women in the countries
of origin. The brochure appeared in 13 languages and
is distributed via
non-governmental organisations and the German embassies in situ.

• to contribute proposals for the administrative provisions in the
Aliens Act which entered into force on 9 October 2000 concerned
with dealing
with victims of trafficking in human beings (for instance a minimum period of
four weeks for executing deportation)

• to draft a cooperation model for a special victim protection scheme
for women who cannot be or do not wish to be included
in the witness protection
programme. This cooperation concept has been sent to the conference of ministers
of the interior to take
a decision and has already been the basis for
corresponding models within individual Federal Länder.

• The drafting of a handout for the authorities in accordance with the
Act on Benefits for Asylum-Seekers (Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz)
and for the
social assistance organisations in competence for benefits in accordance with
the Act on Benefits for Asylum-Seekers
and the Federal Social Assistance Act
(Bundessozialhilfegesetz) for victims of trafficking in human beings.

• The drafting of a recommendation for the Federal Länder for the
area of application of the Victim Compensation Act
(Opferentschädigungsgesetz)
addressing victims of trafficking in human
beings.

• Preliminary work for an ordinance of the Federal Ministry of Labour
and Social Affairs to the Federal Employment Service on
the admission of female
foreign workers to the labour market in the framework of witness protection
programmes in the Länder

• The implementation of special further training of the Federal
Criminal Police Office in the field of the police, involving
individual members
of the working party.

6.3 Further measures in the fight against trafficking in women

More and more Federal Länder have established similar bodies under their
responsibility to improve the prosecution of traffickers
in human beings and to
effectively protect and support the victims.

Other measures concerned with combating and trafficking in children and women
include the annual situation reports of the Federal
Criminal Police Office,
which illustrate with different foci the situation in Germany and developments
in this field of crime. Cooperation
between the Federal Criminal Police Office
and the police authorities in the Federal Länder has been improved by
establishing
a special working party. Furthermore, special basic and further
training measures for officers dealing with trafficking in human
beings are
being implemented. Also cross-border cooperation between the Federal Criminal
Police Office and the police authorities
of the countries of origin is being
continually expanded via Interpol and EUROPOL.

Women who come to Germany and apply for asylum here have in some cases
different reasons for escaping than men. These specific reasons
for escape of
women are increasingly the subject of international discussion: In particular
the international bodies in the fields
of human rights, women's rights and
matters concerned with refugees relate to gender-specific persecution and the
degree to which
the individual states grant to the women in question protection
against such human rights violations (cf. on this also Part I 8.3
"Female
asylum-seekers in Germany").

The last Report explained that German tourists who sexually abuse children
abroad are to be held responsible under criminal law in
Germany, even if the
offence is not punishable in the country in which it was committed.

No precise information is available as to the total number of investigation
proceedings pursued against Germans on allegations of
having sexually abused
children abroad.

A small amount of information was provided by a questionnaire carried out in
two sections by the Federal Ministry of Justice (on 19
November 1996 and on
28 January 1998) among the Länder as to the proceedings pursued in
their area of competence in respect
of sexual abuse of foreign children by
Germans abroad. The period of the questionnaire covered from October 1993 to
January 1998,
a total of four years and four months. For the second
questionnaire (period from February 1997) however, data are not available from
all Federal Länder.

An evaluation carried out by the Centre for Criminology in Wiesbaden of the
proceedings described in these questionnaires shows the
following picture:

A total of 51 sets of investigation proceedings were initiated in the period
under investigation, whereby in one set of proceedings
nothing was stated apart
from the fact that the proceedings had been initiated. 59 persons were accused
of having become punishable
against 148 persons.

The countries of the scenes of the crime are (by number of sets of
proceedings): Thailand (15), Czech Republic (7), the Philippines
(5), Sri Lanka
(5), Brazil (4), as well as in cases of one or two sets of proceedings Bulgaria,
Cambodia, Canada, Kenya, Cuba, Madagascar,
Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Paraguay,
Romania and South Africa.

33 (55.9%) accused persons were (initially) accused of the sexual abuse of
children, in another 17 cases in conjunction with additional
criminal offences
(for instance production/dissemination of pornographic writings, sexual abuse of
charges, grievous physical injury,
sexual abuse of juveniles, rape). Sets of
proceedings exclusively in respect of the sexual abuse of juveniles or charges
were being
pursued against four and two accused persons respectively. Only 2
(3.4%) cases were not primarily related to sexual abuse, but to
the
production/dissemination of pornographic writings, in each case in conjunction
with the placement of children.

The current state of the proceedings at the time of the questionnaire shows
that 13 (22%) accused persons had been convicted by January
1998, while the
proceedings were discontinued in the case of 16 (27%) accused persons. With the
majority of the accused persons,
the proceedings at the time of the
questionnaire were still continuing. Of the 13 convictions, 7 were carried out
in Germany and
6 in the country in which the offence was committed. In the 7
convictions carried out in Germany, confessions were given in 3 cases.
No
information is available on this with regard to convictions carried out in the
countries of the scene of the crime. The average
sentences of the seven
convictions in Germany is 2 years and 4 months and that of the six convictions
in the country of the place
the offence was committed 5 years and 9 months.

6.5 Statutory measures

On the basis of the First Act to Improve the Position of the Injured Party in
Criminal Proceedings (Victim Protection Act, 1987) and
with the Act to Protect
Witnesses in Questioning in Criminal Proceedings and to Improve Victim
Protection (Gesetz zum Schutz von
Zeugen bei Vernehmungen im Strafverfahren und
zur Verbesserung des Opferschutzes), the Witness Protection Act, which entered
into
force on 1 December 1998, affords the interests of the victims of
crime an even more central position in criminal proceedings.

These statutes improved the law of accessory prosecution incidental to
criminal proceedings and the implementation of civil proceedings
claims in
criminal proceedings (adhesion proceedings). By means of the Witness Protection
Act, the use of video technology was introduced
into criminal proceedings.
Stressful repeat questioning sessions or the frequently oppressive atmosphere of
the courtroom and the
confrontation with the tormentor can thus be avoided.

Finally, provision was made under certain preconditions to appoint counsel
for the witness for questioning or council for the victim
at the cost of the
state for the duration of the proceedings.

The Worker Protection Act (Beschäftigtenschutzgesetz) should be
mentioned outside criminal law by means of which all staff in
the public service
and in private industry are legally protected against sexual harassment at work.
The Act obliges all employers
to take the necessary protective measures without
delay if a worker feels that they have been sexually harassed. This includes
labour
law and disciplinary consequences against offenders.

Furthermore, the protection of foreign women has been increased in the Aliens
Act. (cf. at 5.3.2)

A special criminal provision for trafficking in human beings, in particular
in women and children, as crimes against humanity in the
framework of an
extended or systematic attack against a civil population was created by means of
the International Criminal Code
which entered into force on 30 June 2002. The
same applies to cases of forced prostitution and other criminal sexual offences
in
this context, which also were made subject to punishment on commission of the
offence in the context of an international or domestic
armed conflict as a war
crime.

7. Article 7: Participation of women in political and public
life

Article 7

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women in the political and public life of the
country
and, in particular, shall ensure to women, on equal terms with men, the
right

a) To vote in all elections and public referenda and to be eligible for
election to all publicly elected bodies;

b) To participate in the formulation of government policy and the
implementation thereof and to hold public office and perform all
public
functions at all levels of government;

c) To participate in non-governmental organizations and associations
concerned with the public and political life of the country.

The following additions can be made to update the previous Report:

As already described in the previous Report, the political and public rights
of participation demanded in Art. 7 a - c of the Convention
are fully extended
to women. Nonetheless, there are a few fields of political and public life in
which women are not adequately represented.
However, a substantial improvement
has been seen in recent years.

In accordance with the 1994 Federal Act on Appointment to Bodies, the
Federation and other parties concerned with procedures for appointments
to
bodies in accordance with this Act must strive towards a situation in which
equal participation of women and men in bodies is
created or maintained.
Additionally, the Federal Act on Appointment to Bodies obliges the Federal
Government in each legislative
period to submit a report on the proportion of
women in major bodies in the field of the Federation and on the secondment of
women
to major bodies outside the area of the Federation.

At the end of May 2002, the Federal Cabinet adopted the report entitled
("Third Report of the Federal Government on the proportion
of women in major
bodies in the area of influence of the Federation"). It proves on the key date
of 30 June 2001 a slight increase
in the proportion of women in the bodies
in the area of influence of the Federation.

In comparison to the Second Bodies Report with the situation dated June 1997

• the average proportion of women in the main bodies in the area of
influence of the Federation increased by 3.7 percent from
12.2% to 15.9%. In
2001 in 318 bodies of 7,794 persons there were 1,242 women, whereas in 1997 in
355 bodies among 8,639 persons
there were only 1,058 women.

• the proportion of bodies with no female members fell from 28.7% to
21.4%,

• 10 bodies out of a total of 318 bodies have a proportion of women of
50 percent or more; this accounts for 3.1 percent, including
amongst others the
consumers committee with 75 percent, the trafficking in women working party with
68.8 percent and the National
Advisory Council for the EU's "Youth for Europe"
programme, at 50 percent.

The Federation has already acted in its direct area of influence and through
its legislation to improve the framework for appointments
to bodies in a manner
that is balanced between the genders: The Federal Equal Opportunities Act for
the Federal Service improved
the opportunities for women to reach managerial
positions. Hence, the opportunities to appoint more women to high-ranking bodies
are better since bodies are mostly occupied with managerial staff. Furthermore,
the rights of equality commissioners have been strengthened.
Since December 2001
it has been necessary in making these appointments to consult the equality
commissioners in the units of the
Federation or specially established equality
sections (section 9 subsection 2 of the Federal Equal Opportunities
Act).

For the implementation of the goal embodied by the Act, there is also a need
to consistently employ to the fullest extent the procedural
regulations provided
for in the Federal Act on Appointment to Bodies for appointments to bodies.

7.2 EU action programmes for the equality of women and men

In the context of the fourth Community Action Programme on equal
opportunities for women and men (1996-2000), the Federal Ministry
for Family
Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth promoted by means of co-funding
several German projects which contributed towards
increasing the proportion of
women in managerial positions:

Over a period of five years the women's computer centre in Berlin collated
Europe wide data on the development of the proportion of
women in
decision-making positions in politics and in selected economic fields, such as
banking and finance, information and communication
technologies. The results
were used by the EU Commission and the EU Member States to create a public
awareness and to develop strategies
for improvement.

The project of the German Youth Institute and Berlin Technical University
(TU) focussed on mentoring programmes as a tool to promote
women in
decision-making positions. Whilst the German Youth Institute evaluated current
mentoring programmes in the Member States
of the European Union, Berlin
Technical University implemented a female mentor programme in which experienced
managerial personalities
from the political and economic spheres gave young
female managers an insight into their everyday working life. The "European
Academy
for Women in Politics and Economics Berlin" was founded in 1999 in the
framework of this project, aiming to take new paths in promoting
young female
managers.

The participation of women in decision-making positions is also a focus of
the following 5th EU programme of the "Action Programme
on equal opportunities
for women and men" (2001 – 2005). It serves to implement the "Community
Framework Strategy on Gender
Equality". The programme focuses thematically on
matters concerned with equal pay (2001), the balanced participation of men and
women
in both family and professional life (2002), the balanced participation of
women and men in the decision-making process (2003) and
the changing gender
roles and stereotypes (2004). Transnational projects are being implemented on
these topics to analyse, create
an awareness and develop skills for action at
national and European level.

7.3 Commitment of women in the churches

Women are in the majority among active church members, and especially
volunteers. In the Protestant churches efforts are underway
to improve the
position of women within the churches. In 17 out of 24 Land churches, as well as
in the Evangelical Church in Germany
(EKD) there are now full-time commissioners
for the concerns of women, and four Land churches have equality statutes
orientated in
line with those of the public service. Plans for the advancement
of women exist in roughly half the Land churches. Approximately
40% of synod
members are women. Three women have been elected as bishops.

Among theologians in active service, however, only almost 25% are women and
their presence in church management and in many bodies
and commissions is
growing only very slowly. The project entitled "Mentoring for women in the
church" was launched at the start of
2002.

Female Catholics are increasingly also active in responsible positions of
church life, in theology and church administration, and
not only in the classic
areas of social and educational work. Matters related to women have now also
reached a higher status in internal
bodies of the Catholic Church.

7.4 Women's organisations

Almost 15 million women are currently committed in women's associations,
women's groups and initiatives. The German Women's Council
is the largest
umbrella organisation of women's associations. Its members include almost 60
member organisations (women's associations
and women's groups of mixed
organisations, as in 2002). Many of these are, in turn, umbrella organisations.
The member organisations
of the German Women's Council demonstrate the variety
of the women's organisations in Germany. These include women's vocational
associations,
confessional women's organisations, women's organisations of the
parties, women's trade union organisations and nationality-orientated
women's
associations. The German Women's Council combines the interests of its member
organisations and contributes these to the
political debate and decision-making
processes.

7.5 Women in the media

As to the portrayal and treatment of issues related to women in the media,
reference is made to the information provided with regard
to sections 37
and 38 of the Consideration of Reports. It can be added to this that in the
framework of the Global Monitoring project
(GMMP 2000), the German Female
Journalists Association has summarised the results of its survey in a brochure
entitled "Who makes
the News?". The brochure discusses the changes which have
taken place in portraying women in newspapers, on the radio and television
since
the 4th World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995.

As to the frequency with which women are named on television, radio and in
the printed media, only a slight increase from 17 % to
18 % can be
observed since 1995. The most frequent occurrence is that of women in a role as
a victim (18.7%). Before men they rank
with 21% (men 5%) only if their civil
status is mentioned. By contrast, women have caught up in their proportion among
staff, especially
on television. They are dominant in the age group between 20
and 34. The gender ratio is balanced between 35 and 40, but one still
finds more
men among the over-fifties.

8. Article 8: Participation of women at international
level

Article 8

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure to women, on
equal terms with men and without any discrimination, the
opportunity to
represent their Governments at the international level and to participate in the
work of international organizations.

The Federal Government attaches considerable importance to informing women in
particular about careers opportunities in international
organisations –
for instance by including the German Women's Council in general advertising
measures for appointments to international
situations. By these means, as well
as through media contacts and interviews, potentially interested women for
instance are given
information at the preparatory seminars organised by the
Foreign Office on selection competitions for careers at the Commission of
the
European Union. Also reference is made by these means to the so-called
International Jobs Pool, a combination of all available
current job
advertisements of the international organisations. The efforts of the Federal
Government to increase the proportion of
women of German nationality at
international level have borne fruit in the period under report. Further efforts
will however remain
necessary in order to achieve gender parity among the German
nationals working at international level.

8.1 Area of the United Nations

According to the "recruitment update" of the UN Secretariat dated 24
September 2001, of a total of 129 German employees in the UN
Secretariat in the
comparable administrative service 46 were women. This corresponds to a ratio of
35.66%. The equivalent proportion
was 30.7% in 1996, and 29.7% in 1994.

In the highest positions of the UN Secretariat, i.e. at level D2 and higher,
one woman can be found among four Germans (D2 position
at DPA). If one takes a
look at all career paths, there are 296 Germans working in the UN Secretariat,
of whom 124 are women. This
corresponds to a ratio of 41.89%.

At the Büro Führungskräfte zu Internationalen Organisationen
(Bureau for International Organisations' Personnel - BFIO)
in Bonn, a placement
agency of the Federal Employment Service for applicants to international
organisations, for the overall UN area,
meaning the Secretariat plus relief
organisations, specialised agencies, special organisations and autonomous
organisations, a total
of 870 German staff (including seconded experts,
consultants and non-permanent staff) of the comparable administrative service
are
registered. Of these, 295 are female, corresponding to a ratio of 33.91%.
The proportion of women at the World Bank group is similar:
The BFIO has
recorded 181 German workers, 64 of whom are women. The ratio is hence 35.36%.

8.2 Area of the European Union

In providing information and recruiting the German candidates for the EU
selection procedures taking place this year, the Foreign
Office referred in
particular to the active policy of the European Commission to advance women, and
above all encouraged women to
apply for the challenging selection procedure. The
quota of women is pleasingly high at the EU preparatory seminars organised by
the Foreign Office: A total of 958 persons have taken part in the eight seminars
organised to date, 41% of whom were women. 131 participants
have registered for
the remaining seminars in Hamburg, of whom 41.2% are women, while for Brussels
there are 81 participants, of
whom as many as 61.8% are women.

For the EU Commission the spread of German staff (as on October 2001) is as
follows: In the salary grades A 1 – A 8 (comparable
to the higher
administrative service) 568 men and 108 women are employed, corresponding to a
ratio of women of 15.98%. There are
no women employed in the top A 1 and A 2
positions. Three female staff have reached the A 3 position. By way of
comparison of the
numbers among men: nine have reached the A 1 position, 23
the A 2 position and 61 the A 3 position.

In the B salary grades (roughly comparable to the administrative service) the
quota of women among German staff is 52.94% (117 women
and 104 men) and in the C
category (roughly comparable to the intermediate service) 53.72% (375 women and
323 men).

When the new Commission was formed in 1999, new appointments were also made
to the Cabinets of the Commissioners. Of the 18 German
Cabinet members appointed
at that time, ten are women.

The following further high-ranking nominations by the Federal Government in
the EU area are to be mentioned:

– Commissioner Schreyer (1999)

– German judge at the European Court of Justice, Colneric (2000)

– German member of the European Court of Audit, von Wedel (since 1
January 2002)

8.3 Diplomatic service of the Federal Republic of Germany

In the entire Foreign Service of the Federal Republic, the proportion of
women (as on 9 November 2001) was 41%; in the higher administrative
service it
was 19%. In managerial functions abroad it was 9.2% (comparable figure for 1997
7.6%; for 1995 5.2%). 6.5% of managerial
functions at home on 9 November 2001
were occupied by women (no comparable figures). 42.5% of the new recruits for
the higher administrative
Foreign Service in 2001 were women (1999 25%,
1997 27%).

9. Article 9: Nationality of women and children

Article 9

(1) States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men to acquire,
change or retain their nationality. They shall ensure in particular
that neither
marriage to an alien nor change of nationality by the husband during marriage
shall automatically change the nationality
of the wife, render her stateless or
force upon her the nationality of the husband.

(2) States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men with respect to
the nationality of their children.

No change or addition to the last Report.

10. Article 10: Equal rights of women and men in the fields of
education and sport

Article 10

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women in order to ensure to them equal rights
with men in
the field of education and in particular to ensure, on a basis of equality of
men and women:

a) The same conditions for career and vocational guidance, for access to
studies and for the achievement of diplomas in educational
establishments of all
categories in rural as well as in urban areas; this equality shall be ensured in
preschool, general, technical,
professional and higher technical education, as
well as in all types of vocational training;

b) Access to the same curricula, the same examinations, teaching staff
with qualifications of the same standard and school premises
and equipment of
the same quality;

c) The elimination of any stereotyped concept of the roles of men and
women at all levels and in all forms of education by encouraging
coeducation and
other types of education which will help to achieve this aim and, in particular,
by the revision of textbooks and
school programmes and the adaptation of
teaching methods;

d) The same opportunities to benefit from scholarships and other study
grants;

e) The same opportunities for access to programmes of continuing education
including adult and functional literacy programmes, particularly
those aimed at
reducing, at the earliest possible time, any gap in education existing between
men and women;

f) The reduction of female student drop-out rates and the organization of
programmes for girls and women who have left school prematurely;

g) The same opportunities to participate actively in sports and physical
education;

h) Access to specific educational information to help to ensure the health
and well-being of families, including information and advice
on family
planning.

As a supplement to the previous Report, reference is made to the development
of the situation of women and girls in this sector, as
described in Part I
3.2 and I. 3.3. The following additions can be made as an update:

10.1 Women and sport

In sport there are major differences between the genders. Women and girls
prefer popular and leisure sports such as gymnastics, riding,
tennis and dance,
whilst boys and men tend towards team and competitive sports such as football,
handball, basketball and light athletics.
In 2000, 10.3 million of the members
of the German Sports Association (DSB) were women. This corresponds to a
proportion of 38.6%.

Although the proportion of women in sports clubs is almost 40%, the
decision-making bodies largely involve men, both in the voluntary
and in the
professional field. Barely 25% of the functions in sports clubs are held by
women. Among club chairpersons, the proportion
of women is only almost 9%. The
reasons include amongst others the reserve of women as regards working in
traditional organisations
with male-dominated structures.

In order to support the Land sport associations, the central associations and
other sports bodies in implementing gender mainstreaming
and in their goal of
increasing the proportion of women in the management bodies within sport, the
Federal Ministry for Family Affairs,
Senior Citizens, Women and Youth initiated
the model project entitled "Women at the top" in cooperation with the National
Olympic
Committee. With this project three problematic areas – women in
managerial positions of sport, voluntary offices or civil commitment
in sport,
social dynamics of sport – are being researched, synergetic effects
created, competences and experiences of women
used in order to reduce the lack
of managerial staff and to facilitate for women equal access to influence and
co-determination in
sport. Hence, with the associations an overall foundation is
created for promising, long-term measures to advance women, and hence
to develop
sport as a whole still further.

The topic "Women to the top in sport" created a vibrant thread throughout the
programme of the 5th European Women and Sport Conference
"Women, Sport and
Innovation" which took place in Berlin from 19 to 21 April 2002.

In this context the project "Come on girls, let's play basketball" is
particularly significant. It encouraged girls in schools and
clubs in 1999 and
2000 to establish new basketball teams or to joint existing teams. The project
of the German Basketball Federation
(DBB) and the Women's Federal Basketball
League (DBBL) was supported by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior
Citizens,
Women and Youth and for the first time addressed girls in particular
to motivate them to enter into a commitment in sports previously
dominated by
boys. In this project the concept and trial of training, game and event forms
that are geared to girls were investigated
to make them transferable to other
sports.

10.2 Family planning education and advice

Since 1992 the Federal Centre for Health Education has had by virtue of
section 1 of the Act on Assistance for Pregnant Women and
Families (SFHG)
the statutory mandate to draft concepts, measures and media on sex education and
family planning. The goal of these
measures is primarily to avoid pregnancy
conflicts.

The statutorily entrenched cooperation between the Federal Centre for Health
Education in the themes of sexual research, family planning
and contraception
with the Federal Länder takes place in the competent Federation-Länder
coordination circle.

One of the central tasks of the Federal Centre for Health Education is to
develop target group-specific concepts for holistic sex
education and family
planning in the context of life planning. This takes place including approaches
focussing on the promotion of
communicative skills by means of information,
motivation and increasing competence.

In addition to developing standard national measures and media, the Federal
Centre for Health Education promotes practice-orientated
model projects and
skill-building measures, and commissions studies. Representative repeat
questionnaires create the basis for media
development and setting topics for the
measures, and make possible changes to the content-related tasks clear in light
of changing
social backgrounds.

Projects and media on principle take account of the different gender-specific
conditions, or are created target group-specifically
for girls/boys and
women/men. In developing media and projects, already in the run up to this
gender-specific approach they are examined
and appropriately implemented in
relation to the goals of gender mainstreaming.

On this working basis, the Federal Centre for Health Education promotes
projects and trials. A few current examples:

• Reflecting youth work in the Federal Länder Rhineland-Palatinate
and the Saarland

Project on gender-aware youth work

• It's a woman's life

Study on careers and family planning

• Quality circle in prenatal diagnostics

Pilot project for doctors and counsellors on this topic

• "She's half a child herself."

Survey on the living conditions, attitudes and contraceptive conduct of young
pregnant women and mothers

• Sexuality and contraception from the point of view of young people
and their parents

1994/1996/1998/2001 repeat survey

• "My own thing" girls go their own way

Documentation of the specialist conference on sex education work with girls
of June 2000

A "material list" provides information on all publications in the Federal
Centre for Health Education, the quarterly specialist periodical
entitled "FORUM
for Sexual Education and Family Planning" reports on topical research results,
practice objects and media. With the
series entitled "Research and practice of
sexual education and family planning" the Federal Centre for Health Education
offers a
forum for discussion and networking between scientific theory and
practice.

11. Article 11: Equal rights of women and men in the field of
employment

Article 11

(1) States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women in the field of employment in order
to ensure, on a
basis of equality of men and women, the same rights, in particular

a) The right to work as an inalienable right of all human beings;

b) The right to the same employment opportunities, including the
application of the same criteria for selection in matters of employment;

c) The right to free choice of profession and employment, the right to
promotion, job security and all benefits and conditions of
service and the right
to receive vocational training and retraining, including apprenticeships,
advanced vocational training and
recurrent training;

d) The right to equal remuneration, including benefits, and to equal
treatment in respect of work of equal value, as well as equality
of treatment in
the evaluation of the quality of work;

e) The right to social security, particularly in cases of retirement,
unemployment, sickness, invalidity and old age and other incapacity
to work, as
well as the right to paid leave;

f) The right to protection of health and to safety in working conditions,
including the safeguarding of the function of reproduction.

(2) In order to prevent discrimination against women on the grounds of
marriage or maternity and to ensure their effective right to
work, States
Parties shall take appropriate measures

a) To prohibit, subject to the imposition of sanctions, dismissal on the
grounds of pregnancy or of maternity leave and discrimination
in dismissals on
the basis of marital status;

b) To introduce maternity leave with pay or with comparable social
benefits without loss of former employment, seniority or social
allowances;

c) To encourage the provision of the necessary supporting social services
to enable parents to combine family obligations with work
responsibilities and
participation in public life, in particular through promoting the establishment
and development of a network
of child-care facilities;

d) To provide special protection to women during pregnancy in types of
work proved to be harmful to them.

(3) Protective legislation relating to matters covered in this article
shall be reviewed periodically in the light of scientific and
technological
knowledge and shall be revised, repealed or extended as necessary.

The following additions can be made to update the previous Report:

Reference is also made to Part I 3.4.

11.1 Civil Code and other statutes

With the Act Amending the Civil Code and the Labour Courts Act (Gesetz
zur Änderung des Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuches und des
Arbeitsgerichtsgesetzes), which entered into force on 3 July
1998, the
liability of the employer for gender-specific discrimination has been reformed
in the shape of the Second Equal Rights
Act. The Act is a reaction to the
judgment of the European Court of Justice dated 22 April 1997 (file
ref. C 180/95), in which the
Court reached the conclusion that the European
Equal Treatment Directive contradicts the provisions existing in Germany on the
equal
treatment of men and women in entering into employment.

The Act Amending the Civil Code and the Labour Courts Act fully accommodated
the caselaw of the European Court of Justice.

In German law, an employer must provide compensation if they have acted in a
discriminatory manner when initiating employment. The
compensation provision
contained in section 611a subsection 2 of the Civil Code does not
depend on guilt. The employer is also liable
for the misconduct of those persons
acting for them in filling the post.

In accordance with section 611a subsection 2 of the Civil Code,
both female and male applicants who have been discriminated against
may demand
suitable compensation in the shape of money. For the best-qualified female
applicant (the applicant who would have obtained
the post if the selection had
been carried out free of discrimination) there is no limit as to the amount of
compensation. For applicants
concerning whom it can be proven by the employer
that they would not have been given the post to be filled because of the better
qualification of the male applicant who was appointed, even had the selection
been free of discrimination, the amount of compensation
is limited to three
months' wages in line with the caselaw of the European Court of Justice.

With the ruling for a right to compensation in accordance with
section 611a of the Civil Code, Parliament opposed a right to be appointed
– which would not have been compatible with the applicable labour law.
Protection relates here not to the opportunity of the
most suitable female or
male applicant to be appointed, but to the right of each female or male
applicant to have the recruitment
procedure carried out free of discrimination.
The version of section 611a of the Civil Code, which makes provision for a
reversal
of the burden of proof favouring injured female or male applicants, has
already accommodated European Directive 97/80/EC.

The compensation arrangement applies to the gender-related discrimination
appropriately concerning vocational promotion if there is
no right to
promotion.

On 28 July 2001, the Act to Reform the Works Constitution Act
entered into force with far-reaching amendments to improve the equal
opportunities of women and men in companies. It was explained
in detail in
Part I at 2.3, to which reference is made here.

In accordance with section 19 subsection 2 of the Federal Equal
Opportunities Act, the unit is to involve the equality commissioner
in the
proceedings to appoint to bodies in nomination or secondment in accordance with
the Federal Act on Appointment to Bodies unless a section for the
equality of women and men has been set up. (cf. also at Part II, 7.1)

11.2 Public service of the Federation

It is one of the major service law policy goals of the Federal Government to
continue to improve the vocational situation of women
in the public service. In
particular, the special needs of women are taken into account by means of
consistent further development
of part-time working opportunities
(cf. Part II, 11.5). The proportion of women as against the total
number of staff in the public
service has continually grown. A total of,
2,500,000 women were employed in the public sector in 2000 according to
information provided
by the Federal Statistical Office. The proportion of women
on the staff has hence increased further to 51.4% in 2000.

The statistical data specifically concerning the public service of the
Federation are summarised in the Federal Government's fourth
report on the
advancement of women. In the period under report from 1995 to 1998, the
proportion of women in the whole Federal service
increased slightly by 1.1
percent from 43.6% to 44.7% (= 250,986 women), whilst the total number of
staff fell by roughly 6% to 561,365.
Hence, the proportion of women in the
Federal service in 1998 was only roughly 6 percent lower than the
proportion of women in the
total population.

The imbalances in the individual areas, however, remained largely unchanged:
The proportion of full-time female civil servants in
the administrative service
of the Federation rose from mid-1995 to mid-1998 only from 11.6% to 13.5%,
and in the administrative service
of the superior Federal authorities from 12.6%
to 14.5%. With heads of section in the superior Federal authorities the
proportion
of women rose from 8.7% in 1994, the last year under report of the
third report on the advancement of women, to 10.6% by 1998, the
last year under
report of the current report, with heads of sub-division from 3.6% to 8.2%.
Among heads of division however it fell
in the same period from 4.1%
to 2.1%.

In comparison to their male colleagues, therefore, still too many women were
employed in lower-value, low-pay areas, including also
part-time jobs: only
38.5% of full-time employees, but 92.8% of all part-time employees in the
Federal service were women. The proportion
of part-time employees among the
staff as a whole was 11.5% in 1998. These staff members – almost
exclusively women –
shared their jobs and established posts with other
staff, almost exclusively again with other women.

91.4% of all of those on leave from the Federal service – and hence for
a time with no income of their own – were women.

Also in terms of status, women always were at a disadvantage in comparison
with their male colleagues in 1998: Only 23.7 percent of
all staff who were
civil servants with life tenure were women (1994 19.2%) as against 64.9%
(1994 66.5%) without life tenure. These
also include employees with temporary
contracts.

Since according to the fourth Report of the Federal Government on the
advancement of women in the Federal service the statutory provisions
to date for
the advancement of women in the Federal service and the courts of the Federation
have made little progress, the Federal
Government as a consequence drafted a new
Federal Equal Opportunities Act which entered into force on 5 December 2001.
This new Equality
Act contains more concrete statutory provisions in order to
continue to make sustainable progress in the advancement of women
(cf.
description Part I 2.5).

By means of the Federal Equal Opportunities Act the previous provisions on
the reconciliation of family and work are also uniformly
improved for all staff
in the public service of the Federation. By these means, at the same time
obstacles for men to undertake family
work are reduced. (cf. also at II 5.1).
Women and men returning to work are to find it easier to return to their
jobs.

11.3 Maternity Protection Act

The Maternity Protection Act is one of the most important statutes of labour
and social law. It protects female employees and their
children against health
risks at work, against dismissal and against loss of income. This Act has proved
itself impressively and
its further development remains a major social policy
task. By means of the Second Act Amending the Maternity Protection Act dated
16
June 2002, all mothers, including those who give birth earlier than calculated,
have a maternity protection period totalling at
least 14 weeks. It was
additionally clarified that the bans on employment under the law on maternity
protection count as working
hours for calculating leave. The Act entered into
force on 20 June 2002.

The Maternity Protection Act is closely linked to the Federal Act on
Child-raising Benefit (child-raising benefit and parental leave
for childcare in
the first years of life, cf. at Part II 11.5.1)).

By means of an anticipatory provision, the Federal Government has transferred
the extension of the period of maternity protection
to at least 14 weeks
applying to other early births to also cover civil servants of the Federation,
at the same time as the entry
into force of the amended Maternity Protection
Act, and hence brought about equal treatment. The Maternity Protection Ordinance
of
Civil Servants (Mutterschutzverordnung der Beamtinnen) will be adjusted
accordingly.

11.4 Gender-specific differences in income

The statutory regulations concerning equal pay are unequivocal. The most
important legal basis is Art. 141 of the EC Treaty (Article
119 of the old
version of the EC Treaty) which is directly applicable law and was once more
substantially improved by the Treaty
of Amsterdam. The principle of equal pay
for equal work was expanded to cover equivalent work. At domestic level, the
legal basis
lies in Article 3 para. 2 of the Basic Law, and in
section 612 subsection 3 second sentence of the Civil Code, in which
since the
legal clarification contained in the 1980 EC Adjustment Act
(EG-Anpassungsgesetz) the principle of "equal pay for equivalent work"
has
expressly been contained. The trade unions and the employers' associations are
also bound by this principle in designing collective
agreements, as are the
employers and works councils in drafting internal wage and salary agreements.
The caselaw of the European
Court of Justice and of the labour courts has also
considerably contributed towards the development of principles concerning what
is to be understood under equal and equivalent work, in particular also on the
circumstances under which different payment is to
be regarded as indirectly
discriminatory.

In December 1998, the Federal Government submitted the 11th Report to the
German Federal Parliament on the problem of realising the
concept of equal pay
in collective agreements. In this Report the Federal Government once more
stressed its view that the existence
of certain lower wage groups in a small
number of collective agreements says nothing about whether the respective tariff
area in
fact undervalues women's work or not. The German Federal Parliament
however regards reporting in its present form as unlikely to
reflect
gender-related equal pay and by order of 30 June 1999 called on the Federal
Government to expand reporting as to its approach
and to draft a report
providing extensive information on the work and income situation of women and
men in the Federal Republic of
Germany. This report was submitted to the German
Federal Parliament on 24 April 2002. It was described in detail in Part I
at 3.4.12.
Furthermore, in June 2002 the Federal Government with the support of
the EU organised an international conference on the topic of
"Equal Pay –
Models and initiatives on equal pay" and is currently preparing a guideline for
players in this field. Also in
the National Sustainability Strategy of the
Federal Republic of Germany, the reduction of the gender-specific wage gap is
provided
for as an indicator of the equality achieved. The goal is to increase
gross annual earnings from 76% in 1997 to 85% in 2010.

11.5 Reconciliation of family and work/Labour market policy for
women

11.5.1 Reconciliation of family and work

The Federal Cabinet adopted the "Women and work" programme on 23 June
1999. The goal pursued by this programme is to emphatically
bring forward the
equal opportunities of women and men at work and in the family. The programme
contains the following measures:

• The Reform of the Federal Child-Raising Benefit Act entered
into force on 1 January 2001. It applies to births from 2001. The reform
improves the preconditions for child-raising benefit
and child-raising leave,
which has now been renamed parental leave. This Act clearly improves the
conditions for joint childcare
by both parents, combining work and
skill-building.

Parents have a right to parental leave for up to three years for every child
whilst retaining full protection against dismissal. They
may also jointly avail
themselves of this right completely or for some time. Parental leave normally
ends on the child's third birthday.
With the consent of the employer, however,
it may be transferred up to a year at a time up until the child's eighth
birthday. During
parental leave, part-time working of up to 30 hours per week is
permitted, and if parental leave is taken jointly this is up to 60
hours per
week. There is also a right to part-time working in companies with more than 15
employees.

The new flexible parental leave replaces the old child-raising leave,
the name and the inflexible rules of which (no legal possibility for joint
child-raising leave,
restriction of permissible part-time working to no more
than 19 hours per week) were out of date. In 2000 roughly 380,000 parents
(of
whom 98.4 % were women) with employment were in the first year of their child's
life in the old child-raising leave, meaning
that roughly 95 % of the
parents who were entitled availed themselves of this opportunity. The quota was
much lower in the second
year of the child's life (approx. 213,000 parents,
roughly 94 % of those entitled). However, as was also the case in the first
year,
child-raising leave continued to be used almost exclusively by women.

A major goal of the new parental leave scheme is the much greater
participation of fathers in joint childcare, i.e. also of the joint
reconciliation of family and work. This goal can be achieved through the better
provisions for part-time working. In 2004, the Federal
Government will submit to
the German Federal Parliament an experience report on the new parental leave.
The stronger participation
of fathers in care of the child in its infancy means
at the same time more equal opportunities for women on the labour market.

• For many women and men, the possibility of working part-time is
highly significant to the reconciliation of family and work.
Major progress has
been made by the Act on Part-Time Working and Fixed-Term Employment
Contracts, which entered into force on 1 January 2001. One core item is
the statutory right to part-time working in companies with more than
15
employees, including managerial positions. Employees in the Federal Republic of
Germany whose employment has lasted for more than
six months may now require
their contractually-agreed working hours to be reduced. The employer must
discuss with the employee the
desired reduction of their working hours with the
aim of reaching an agreement regarding working hours and their distribution.
This
new legal provision goes beyond reconciliation of work and family. In fact
it also separately makes it possible to reconcile part-time
working
independently of family duties. Furthermore, this Act provides that employees
who wish to extend their contractually agreed
working hours are to be given
priority in comparison with others with the same aptitude after communication
with the employer, assuming
a suitable post is available.

• One of the central questions arising in the topic of reconciliation
of family and work is childcare. A well-functioning childcare system is
of great significance. In accordance with the statutory provisions, the
Länder and local
authorities are responsible for offering a sufficient
range of care for all age groups.

In spite of the introduction of a legal right to a kindergarten place in
1996, in the Western Federal Länder in particular there
are still gaps in
care, especially for children under the age of three, in all-day care for
children aged between three and six and
in care for primary school children in
the afternoon. Furthermore, there is a need for more flexible care times.

The impetus for the quantitative and qualitative expansion of the childcare
system came from the international conference entitled
"Children as a factor for
the future – for all-day education and care in Germany" organised by the
Federal Ministry for Family
Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth between 6
and 7 June 2002 in Berlin.

The Länder and local authorities, which are responsible for childcare,
go to considerable lengths to overcome gaps in provision.
For instance,
kindergarten places which become free – as a result of demographic
trends – can be reassigned for younger
or older children.

The Federal Government will support the efforts of the Länder with
€ 4 billion which are allotted amongst other things
to expanding
all-day schools. Furthermore, for instance the "Agreement between the Federal
Government and the central associations
of German industry to promote equal
opportunities for women and men in private industry" concluded in July 2001
provides that companies
commit to childcare. In order to support this
commitment, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and
Youth
will publish a brochure entitled "Company-supported childcare". In
addition to this, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior
Citizens,
Women and Youth published a handout at the beginning of 2002 entitled
"Family-friendly measures at work" for company management,
employee
representatives and staff, offering a broad range of measures for the better
reconciliation of family and work. It ranges
from family-related variants on
work via personnel strategy considerations, through to creating a
family-friendly company structure.

• The goal being pursued is to overcome the traditional gender roles in
accordance with which women are responsible for the
family and men for work. The
Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth has hence
launched a campaign
for the creation of a new perception of men and of fathers.
The aim is to promote attitudes and conduct of men in families based
on
partnership. A particular target group of the campaign is young fathers and men
in the family planning phase, as well as young
adolescents. The alliance
partners for the campaign are in particular employers and companies. The
national communication offensive
was launched on 6 March 2001 under the
motto of "More scope for men". A fundamental element of the campaign is the
involvement of
enterprises. For instance, a "relay race" was organised by
companies in all 16 Federal Länder which have already developed
family-friendly
solutions or intend to do so in the near future. In the context
of this "relay race" the possibilities open to fathers and enterprises
by virtue
of the new statutes were made obvious in a company environment. All cooperating
enterprises organised a day of action on
this, the so-called "Father's Day".

• In the context of the Federal competition entitled "The
Family-Friendly Company 2000: - New Opportunities for Women and Men",
companies which also support fathers in reconciliation of family and work and
practice model
teleworking solutions were awarded prizes on 31 October 2000
at the EXPO in Hanover. Also in the Länder there were and are comparable
competitions on the topic of family-friendly company/equal opportunities.

• An Infotheque on the subject of "reconciliation of family and
work" for trade fairs, congresses and exhibitions provides information on best
practice
models and strategies which lead to a family-friendly world of
work.

• An online counselling service advises small and medium-sized
enterprises in particular about the introduction of family-friendly
measures and
those which serve to advance women.

• The Agreement between the Federal Government and the central
associations of German industry dated July 2001 to promote equal
opportunities
of women and men in private industry was already described in Part I at
3.4.10.

Further measures have been developed and implemented with participation from
the business community, such as the example of the basic
curriculum on
reconciliation of family and work as a training concept for managers. It
supports specialists and managers, in particular those in small and medium-sized
enterprises and organisations, to develop the
reconciliation of family and work
as a motivation factor and implement it within the enterprise culture.

Today, innovative work aids and forms of work such as the Internet,
teleworking and flexible working hours form the basis of reconciliation
of
family and work. In evaluating case studies, interviews with companies and staff
and expert talks, a guideline for a family-related design of teleworking
provides employers and employees with an orientation and concrete assistance for
practical rules taking into account all aspects
which are relevant for everyday
life on condition of the reconciliation of family and work.

In order to provide to women above all assistance for their return to
work after the family phase, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior
Citizens, Women and Youth has put together an overview of
state assistance,
practical tips on questions related to childcare, fiscal and social law
questions, etc., in a brochure entitled
"Back to work".

Another brochure of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens,
Women and Youth entitled "Reconciliation of family and
work – Advice for
self-employed and assisting family members" answers questions related to the
statutory framework of child-raising
benefit and parental leave, safeguarding
health, long-term care and pensions insurance under social law, etc., as well as
dealing
with fiscal aspects.

• The final paragraphs deal with the statutory regulations intended to
make it easier for civil servants and employees in the
public service to
reconcile family and work.

For civil servants, the possibility to work part time which was first
introduced in 1969 as "family policy part-time employment" has
been continually
expanded and further developed. Family policy part-time employment may now be
exercised for up to twelve years,
with fewer than 50% of the regular working
hours.

Furthermore, it has been possible since 1997 to apply for part-time working
with no preconditions, making it possible to employ civil
servants at their
request with no preconditions having to be met in part-time working unless there
are official reasons for a refusal.

Part-time employment for those approaching retirement was introduced as a new
element in 1998. This is part-time employment until
retirement age with half of
the previous working hours for civil servants who have already turned 55. There
is an option here where
employees may work half days over the entire period or
select a block model combining working and leisure phases. Part-time employment
for those approaching retirement age is linked to particular advantages
concerning salary and pensions. As on 1 July 2000, the possibility
to take
advantage of part-time employment for those approaching retirement age was
opened up also for civil servants previously working
part-time who had initially
been excluded from the arrangement. This arrangement benefits women in
particular.

Part-time work opportunities have been opened up to improve the
reconciliation of family and work for employees of the public service
by
introducing and continually expanding the collective agreement provisions on
part-time working from 1994 onwards. The possibility
of part-time employment for
those approaching retirement age has also existed since 1998 for this group of
individuals; the regulations
are the same as those for civil servants.

The Federal Act on Equal Opportunities between Women and Men in the Federal
Administration and in the Federal Courts (Federal Equal
Opportunities Act),
which entered into force on 5 December 2001, contained supplementary provisions
on part-time employment and those
outreaching the Part-time Working and
Fixed-Term Employment Act for all staff there. For instance, posts with superior
and managerial
tasks are to be advertised to be filled on a part-time basis
unless "compelling" official concerns oppose this. Over and above part-time
working and family-related leave, staff with family duties are also to be
offered teleworking jobs or special working hours models
such as a Sabbatical
year or working hour accounts where officially possible. Furthermore, it should
be made easier than before for
part-time employees with family duties to return
to full-time employment. (cf. also Part I 5.1).

The new provisions of the Federal Child-Raising Benefit Act on parental leave
have been transferred to the Parental Leave Ordinance amended by the
ordinance dated 17 July 2001 (Federal Law Gazette Part I
p. 1664). The amendment, which applies to Federal civil servants,
entered
into force retroactively as on 1 January 2001 in order to ensure
chronological harmony with the impact under the law on child-raising
benefit.

11.5.2 Labour market policy for women – model projects of the
Federal Government

Socially acceptable commercial provision of labour was tried in the
context of model project promotion with two charitable companies engaging in the
commercial provision of labour
(START Zeitarbeit in North Rhine-Westphalia and
Gesellschaft für Arbeitnehmerüberlassung Thüringen) between 1996
and
2000 as a labour market policy tool for the vocational reintegration of
women. It was revealed here that women have much better chances
than men to
become integrated into the first labour market in the long term via the socially
acceptable commercial provision of labour.
This applies in particular also to
special target groups within the labour market such as the unemployed and/or
single mothers or
women who have not completed vocational training.

In the framework of the fourth Community Action Programme on equal
opportunities (MACH), the German Youth Institute implemented the
project
entitled "Mentoring for women in Europe". After completing the EU
start-up funding, the further networking and dissemination of the existing
mentoring concepts was brought
onwards in another project phase with funds from
the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, and
new
concepts were developed for female business starters, women in politics and
women in the administration.

The competence centre for equal opportunities policy in the labour and
service society of the 21st Century (2001 to 2003) advises and accompanies
regional and company players as a support and consultation agency. The core of
this competence
centre are enterprise-specific and sector-specific measures
aiming to implement the gender mainstreaming concept with a regional
focus with
the aim in mind of achieving greater equality of opportunities between men and
women on the labour market.

11.5.3 Business start-ups

In the framework of a three-part study of gender aspects in business
start-ups, various approaches aiming to achieve a more precise,
gender-differentiated strategy on business start-ups have been developed.

The supply and demand structures of women-specific advice facilities were
examined for the first time in a study, the goal of which
was to collate the
approaches and services of these agencies in women's business start-up processes
and to ascertain the networking
approaches to the classical facilities of the
chambers, banks and associations. The data obtained in the analysis reveal the
considerable
significance that these facilities have for developing the
entrepreneurial potential of women.

A further sub-study analysed the conditions and developments of start-up
processes for self-employed additional and extra work. The
background to this
lies in the fact that the establishment of small and micro enterprises follows a
totally different development
pattern than technology- and
commercially-orientated company start-ups. The study shows the high position of
small and micro start-ups
with their development potential, and at the same
proves that women actively contribute to economic structural change.

In the framework of a further expert report, the official statistics that are
relevant to the field of start-ups were evaluated from
the point of view of
gender-related aspects and recommendations were drafted for gender-orientated
documentation and analysis.

The focus was on activities from and for female entrepreneurs and business
starters in small and medium-sized enterprises in nation-wide
research that was
carried out in the first half of 2001. As a result of this survey, it was
possible to identify roughly 500 initiatives,
activities and projects of and for
female entrepreneurs and business starters which performed the function of
network nodes. The
aim of this measure is to make these specific structures
visible and to network them with the classical and traditional structures
of
economic promotion.

In order to promote the generation change in enterprises, the German
Equalisation Bank, the Federation of German Chambers of Industry
and Commerce
and the Federation of German Trade initiated the joint CHANGE/CHANCE
initiative. The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and
Youth was involved in the initiative from 1998 to
2001 in order to enable
women to benefit from succession within enterprises more strongly than was
previously the case as a form
of starting in business. The intention pursued
was, above all, to improve cooperation between classical start-up advice units
such
as chambers, associations, and banks with women-specific advice
agencies.

11.6 The right to social security

The following additions can be made to update the previous Report:

The pension reform, which entered into force on 1 January 2002,
mitigates the pensions law consequences of women's lower wages. The
pension
expectancies of persons bringing up children who are in gainful employment
during the first ten years of their child's life
but primarily exercise this
employment in the shape of part-time working because of bringing up the
children, and hence who earn
less than average, are increased in value for times
from 1992 onwards. Here, the individual income is increased by 50% to a maximum
of 100% of the average income if a total of 25 years are available with pension
law times. This creates an incentive to keep gaps
in the insurance biography
caused by bringing up children as short as possible, and to at least enter into
part-time employment soon
after the childcare time. This will benefit women in
particular who enter part-time employment when the youngest child goes to
kindergarten.

This favourable change also benefits persons who in many cases cannot enter
gainful employment because of taking care of a child who
is in need of long-term
care. Here, too, the obligatory contribution period to be recognised for the
carer in calculating the pension
is increased in value by 50% but up to a
maximum of the value emerging from 100% of the average income – until the
child in
need of long-term care reaches the age of 18.

For persons bringing up children who have several children under the age of
ten for whom entering gainful employment proves to be
more difficult than with
only one child in this age group, the Act provides for an equalisation measure
in order to close gaps in
pension.

A woman working part-time with one child or a woman not working with two
children may receive up to € 60 in additional monthly
pension through
the newly-introduced promotion measures.

Mothers or fathers are granted a pension credit of income points after the
end of the period of bringing up the children, in other
words when the child has
reached the age of four, for times from 1992 onwards. This credit as a rule
corresponds to the maximum promotion
with the child-related higher valuation of
contribution times for persons who are in gainful employment (in other words a
third of
an income point per year).

The additional capital-covered old-age pension created by the Age Assets Act
(Altersvermögensgesetz) with state promotion also
takes account of the
period of bringing up children. In its final phase (2008) the Act provides in
addition to the basic allowance
of € 154 per year per parent a child
allowance of € 185 per year per child. Especially with low family
incomes, for instance
in the case of single parents with children, the result of
this promotion model is that in some cases up to more than 80% of the
total
amount saved is contributed by the state allowance.

Furthermore, the current pension reform also reforms pensions for surviving
dependants. With the aim of retaining long-term confidence
protection, the new
law is introduced for married couples both of whom are younger than 40, and for
new marriages. The previous provisions
continue to apply to all other married
couples.

In accordance with the new law, pensions for widows and widowers are reduced
from 60% to 55% in the basic welfare protection, but
the pension is
increased by an allowance for the first child by two income points and for the
further children by one income point
each since women who bring up children have
much larger gaps in their income biographies than women and men who have not
brought
up children. This already leads to a small improvement in her widow's
pension for a widow with an average widow's pension who has
brought up a child.
Together with the upgrading of her own contribution times, a clear improvement
hence emerges in most cases in
the overall pensions of women who have brought up
children.

With the widow's pension for women whose income is not reduced, who do not
bring up children and are younger than 45 (so-called small
widow's pension) the
duration of benefit is restricted to a transitional period of two years.

Furthermore, for younger couples and new marriages in which protection of
confidence does not apply, there is an increasing effect
of the income on
pensions for surviving dependants. Previously, only income from gainful
employment and alternative income (for instance
insured persons pensions from
pension insurance and pension benefits) were counted as income.

In the interest of equal treatment, all types of income will be counted in
future towards pensions for surviving dependants with the
exception of most
tax-free income in accordance with the Income Tax Act (Einkommenssteuergesetz),
and income from old-age pension
contracts if they have been promoted in
accordance with the Income Tax Act (in other words also income from assets).

The reform further makes provision for younger spouses under certain
conditions being able to select in future between traditional
pensions for
married and widowed persons (when both spouses are alive each receives their
insured pension, and in the event of the
death of the spouse, the surviving
spouse is also granted a surviving dependants pension which is derived on a
subsidiary basis in
addition to their pension) and pension splitting. This is
achieved by means of an agreed declaration by both spouses. The effect
of this
sharing in a spirit of partnership as a rule already applies when both spouses
are alive (namely when a full pension because
of old age is also granted for the
second spouse).

Pension splitting is designed in a similar way to pension equalisation. The
total of the pension expectancies from the time of the
marriage is divided
equally among both partners. As a rule, the woman's independent pension
entitlement is increased which is not
counted as income also in the case of then
becoming a surviving dependant. The expectancies acquired by means of pension
splitting
are also retained in the event of re-marriage.

12. Article 12: Equal rights of men and women in the field of
health care

Article 12

1) States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women in the field of health care in order
to ensure, on
a basis of equality of men and women, access to health care services, including
those related to family planning.

(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 1 of this article, States
Parties shall ensure to women appropriate services in connexion
with pregnancy,
confinement and the post-natal period, granting free services where necessary,
as well as adequate nutrition during
pregnancy and lactation.

The Federal Republic of Germany has a health system which legally guarantees
the access of women and men to health services and facilities
on an equal basis.
Everyone receives the necessary health services and benefits regardless of sex,
age or social status. Progress
in medicine and medical technology equally
benefits women and men. It must be borne in mind in this context that women are
to some
extent afflicted by different kinds of complaints and diseases. However,
special gender-specific features can also arise as regards
the course and impact
of illness. Women to some extent react differently to health problems, and for
this reason also seek services
and offers which cater to their needs.

The further development of health-related offers and services - also in
relation to specific and health-related problems of women
- is a task for all
involved in the framework of our pluralistic health system. In particular, it is
also the responsibility of the
Länder and municipalities, the doctors and
the self-administration borne by the social partners, independent providers,
science
and research, as well as of self-help organisations.

The following additions can be made to update the previous Report:

12.1 Needs specific to women in health policy

The Federal Government has contributed with various measures towards
women-specific concerns being increasingly taken into consideration
in the
health system.

Particular significance is hence attached to the Report on the health
situation of women in Germany, commissioned by the Federal Ministry for
Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, the results of which were
published in
2001. Here, Germany for the first time submits a systematic
stocktake of data on women's health making it clear that women and men
suffer
from different diseases with different symptoms and courses, react differently
to medicines and therapies and have a different
attitude to illness and health.
The Report, which is specifically based on an understanding of health and
illness related to women's
lives, also provides an overview of the women-centred
approaches in health promotion which exist in many places in Germany. These
examples of good practice are based on a "holistic" understanding of health,
meaning that they take account of the burdens of work,
vocation and family and
understand health as well-being and strengthening ability to help oneself.

In order to present the results of the women's health report and to discuss
its conclusions for implementation with experts from the
field of health, in
October 2001 the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and
Youth organised a specialist
conference entitled "Women's health, women's life,
women's work". This led to a dialogue with representatives from theory and
practice
and to an exchange between various groups in the health sector with the
aim of implementing a women-specific point of view within
the healthcare system
in Germany. In January 2002, in order to implement the many suggestions and
conclusions from reporting on women's
health, a coordination body on "women's
health" was established with the financial support of the Federal Ministry for
Family Affairs,
Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. It is to undertake the task of
providing policy advice during the three-year project phase in the
field of
women's health which is needed as the basis for future plans.

The conclusions contained in the Report demonstrate the serious consequences
that the experience of violence has for women's health.
In spite of the large
number of women concerned, experience of violence and maltreatment is frequently
not recognised as having caused
health complaints, and is not suitably treated.
Since March 2000 the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women
and Youth has hence been promoting scientific research on the Berlin model
project entitled "SIGNAL" at the Benjamin Franklin University
Clinic. This
project aims to improve healthcare for women who have been maltreated by means
of awareness-building within the medical
sector for the violence problem. The
results are to be implemented after completion of the measure in other hospitals
and non-residential
practices and to enable the medical staff to deal with women
affected by (sexual) violence competently and in a problem-specific
manner.

Girls and women with a mental disability are at particular risk from sexual
exploitation and sexual violence. For this reason, in
December 1999 the Federal
Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth commissioned a
four-year pilot project on
"Dealing with sexual self-determination and sexual
violence in housing facilities for young people with a mental disability". This
project aims to develop a (sex) education curriculum on matters of sexual
self-determination and sexual violence in facilities for
young people with a
mental disability. Those concerned are thus to be enabled to recognise and avoid
excesses and attacks in everyday
life, or if they have taken place to take the
necessary, appropriate measures. The approaches to be drafted are to target
carers
and managers, as well as residents with a mental disability.

One health problem which largely affects women is eating disorders. The
prevalence of eating disorders has increased considerably
in the last 25 years.
This increase amplifies the need for advice and therapy, as well as the number
of advice and therapy facilities
dealing with it. This issue is tackled by a new
project organised by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens,
Women
and Youth: "Quality assurance in advice and non-residential therapy of
women and girls with eating disorders". It was launched on
15 November 2001
with the aim in mind of promoting advice and non-residential treatment for
eating disorders that is geared to women
and girls.

12.2 Women and addiction

Women-specific addiction work and practical research has indicated in the
last two decades that dependence on substances of abuse
among women is specific
in terms of the forms it takes and is linked to role-specific circumstances and
backgrounds. Experience with
women addicts indicates that they suffer from their
substance abuse and dependence rather inconspicuously, and that they attract
less attention in society than men with this problem. This must be taken into
account in providing advice and treatment. Women-specific
addiction work hence
attaches considerable significance to developing women's self-esteem and
self-confidence. Gender-differentiated
offerings are needed in assistance for
substance addicts and have become the standard. Differentiating advice and
therapy offerings
have been available to female alcoholics for many years.
Increasingly, in the past ten years this offering has also been improved
for
drug-consuming women and adjusted to the specific needs of women. The Federal
Ministry for Health has promoted amongst other
things special pilot projects in
this field. Shelters and contact shops for women have been created, as well as
offerings for pregnant
women and women with children. In self-help, women's
groups have also become a recognised, proven element in addiction work. A future
focus is the improvement of an offering for dependent smokers; with roughly 2.5
million this is the largest group; these are 40%
of the total estimated number
of smokers. The offerings that are to be created will focus on pregnant women,
as well as girls and
very young women.

12.3 Cooperation of the Federal Government with
various health organisations

Cooperation between the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens,
Women and Youth and the various facilities and organisations
specially devoted
to women's health (for instance the women's health centres), and promotion of
individual activities with ideas
and funding (in particular specialist events
and publications) of these institutions, revealed interesting suggestions for
measures
to increase the consideration of women-specific health aspects, as well
as uncovering specific problems related to women's health.

A further project which was jointly promoted until 2001 by the Federal
Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth
and the EU aimed
to develop more fully at transnational level the existing women-specific
approaches in health advice and prevention
by the individual EU States which
were emerging in cooperation with health research, medical practice and from the
experience of
self-help groups, and to make them accessible to a broad
specialist public.

In the framework of this four-year project, the foundation was laid for a
transnational network called "Women and health".

Important groups of addressees include national and regional organisations in
the health area, as well as women from the field of
health care and the
self-help movement in the countries involved.

The EU supra-country exchange has contributed towards the bundling of
resources, to the expansion of the level of knowledge and to
Europe wide
networking of activities of this nature.

From November 1999 to the end of 2000 the national Pro-Familia association
carried out the project entitled "Accompanying measures
to introduce medicinal
abortion using Mifegyne" with the promotion of the Federal Ministry for Family
Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women
and Youth. The goals of the project, namely to
give women a choice related to their individual health and life situation
between
the options of abortion using medicine or by means of surgery, and to
integrate abortion by means of medicine using Mifegyne into
the healthcare
system in Germany as quickly as possible, could largely be achieved.

Measures in the project included further training for advisors and doctors, a
specialist conference with the participation of international
experts, the
production of information material for clients in several languages, as well as
surveys on the development of the supply
system and on the acceptance of the
method by the advice agencies, medical facilities and women concerned.

The mortality statistics with the listed life expectancy and the maternal and
infant mortality are regarded as a major indicator of
the overall health
situation.

The life expectancy of women in the Federal Republic of Germany has risen
from 68 years in 1951 to 80.5 years in 1997/1999, and is
6.1 years higher than
that of men.

The maternal and infant mortality rates have continued to decline in recent
years. Maternal mortality (deaths of women resulting from
complications during
pregnancy, delivery and in childbed per 100,000 live births) amounted to 4.8 in
1999 (1993 5.5; 1987: 8.7; 1979:
22.0). In 1970, it was in fact more than six
times the present level in the old Federal Länder, with a figure of
51.8.

In 2000, infant mortality reached its lowest level since the war, with only
4.4 babies per 1,000 live births dying in their first
year of life. This
development is probably due, among other things, to the high degree of
utilisation (approx. 90% of those entitled)
of the check-up examinations for
pregnant women, new-borns, infants and toddlers introduced by the statutory
health insurance companies
in 1966. Pregnant women receive a "maternity card"
for twelve check-up examinations (and more where necessary) from their doctor.
In the case of women who do not have health insurance and live on a low income,
the costs for the check-up examinations of the pregnant
woman are met by the
Social Services Office.

The free counselling service for pregnant women and mothers offered by the
Health Offices of the public health service and the statutory
health insurance
funds is also of great importance. The programme is extensive, including
information on matters concerning diet,
advice and help with breast-feeding
problems, prophylactic vaccinations, prevention of rickets and caries, early
detection of disabilities,
particularly in high-risk children, early detection
of diseases and disturbances in emotional and physical development.

Considerable importance is also attached to the work of the Mothers'
Convalescence Agency for mothers with children. The use of mother
and child spa
stays as against mothers' spa stays has risen in recent years. The expenditure
of the statutory health insurance funds
for medical care and rehabilitation for
mothers and fathers (previously referred to as mothers spa stays) have risen
from approx.
€ 80 million (DM 160 million) in 1991 to about
€ 400 million in 2001. Only in 1997 was there a slight fall in
expenditure
to € 330 million (DM 660 million). The
establishments of the Mothers' Convalescence Agency are funded by the
associations of
independent welfare and the churches. The Federal Government
promotes the construction and maintenance of these facilities to the
tune of
some DM 8 million (€ 4,090,335.05 million) per year. In cases of
need, donations of the Mothers' Convalescence Agency
are also available.

On 1 August 2002, the Act to Improve Care and Rehabilitation for Mothers
and Fathers (Gesetz zur Verbesserung der Vorsorge und Rehabilitation
für
Mütter und Väter) came into force. This Act ensures full funding by
the statutory health insurance of prevention
and rehabilitation benefits for
mothers and fathers. The possibility was removed for health insurance funds to
provide in their statutes
for only partial funding. Furthermore, the quality and
the efficiency of the prevention and rehabilitation services for mothers and
fathers in facilities of the Mothers' Convalescence Agency and comparable
facilities was secured by introducing a contractual system
like that covering
the remainder of the prevention and rehabilitation services.

12.4 HIV infection and AIDS

According to the assessment by the Robert Koch Institute, a total of roughly
38,000 persons infected with HIV currently live in Germany,
of whom roughly
29,500 are men and 8,300 are women. The illness has already fully advanced to
become AIDS among roughly 5,000 of
the 38,000 persons infected with HIV.

Roughly 60,000 people have become infected with HIV since the start of the
epidemic in the eighties until the end of 2001. During
this time, roughly 25.000
of them have become ill with AIDS and roughly 20,000 have died of the
consequences of HIV infection.

The number of new infections per year has remained largely constant at
roughly 2,000 in recent years. Almost one-quarter of new infections
affect
women.

Surveys on the social and mental situation of women affected by HIV/AIDS and
their medical and psychosocial supply situation have
set the stage for taking
account of women-specific interests in the advice and care that is offered.
Thus, in the framework of the
HIV-AIDS prevention strategy, brochures are
provided by the Federal Centre for Health Education which directly approach
girls and
young women. The promotion of the specialist field "women" within
German AIDS assistance, in particular their advice and care offerings
for
HIV-positive women, ensures personal and practical support in all problems
linked to women and AIDS. By means of a network which
was created in 1992 called
"Women and AIDS", a number of measures have been initiated to increasingly
tackle gender-specific factors
in perception of illness, dealing with illness
and prevention. The promotion and support of HIV/AIDS prevention offerings in
prostitution
scenes in the cross-border areas to the Eastern neighbouring states
has not lost its significance.

With the research project entitled "Influence of medical therapy progress on
the life and action outlook of women with HIV and AIDS"
on the one hand the new
status quo is to be described, and at the same time, the corresponding
improvement of psychosocial support
offerings is to be achieved.

In relation to pregnancy and HIV/AIDS, undesirable effects on the child are
to be prevented by virtue of the research project entitled
"German multicentre
study to carry out follow-up observation of the children of HIV-positive mothers
with intrauterine antiretroviral
medicine exposure", and therefore also the
worries and fears of the mothers with regard to their children are to be
reduced.

12.5 Research into women's health

The health research programme funded jointly by the Federal Ministry of
Education and Research and the Federal Ministry for Health,
adopted by Cabinet
on 22 November 2000, tackled the topic of "Women's health research" with
the programmatic statement made there
(excerpt):

"We in Germany need to catch up also on work on women's health in the
respective research context, irrespectively of increasing establishment
of
international research in recent years. As a precondition for the development of
effective measures in prevention, therapy and
rehabilitation, which are to
strengthen the objective and subjective resources for health, risks, the
protection factors and burden
constellations which are different specifically to
women and to gender are to be uncovered. The understanding of these aspects must
then be orientated towards women's and men's circumstances and include the
concomitant different questions."

We are already doing our utmost to catch up as mentioned above in that the
call for tender texts for central areas of promotion in
the programme
appropriately draw attention to this problem. This has been carried out for the
first time for instance in the notice
on the establishment of medical competence
networks for heart circulation diseases, where it says: "Gender-specific aspects
should
be [...] suitably taken into account". These requirements are also being
made in the promotion guidelines on applied care research.

Promotion of research projects with women-specific questions is amplified
both in the framework of departmental research of the Federal
Ministry for
Health, and that of the health research programme.

Projects on gender-specific aspects of rehabilitation have also been
organised since the summer of 1998 in eight regional research
associations in
the promotion focus on rehabilitation research, with a total promotion amount of
more than DM 1.7 million (more than
€ 896,000).

Health situation of women in old age

Since women have a higher life expectancy than men, the probability is higher
that they will suffer from age-related illnesses as
a result of their longer
life. The focus here is on coronary heart disease, cancer, in particular breast
cancer, osteoporosis and
mental illnesses such as depression and dementia with
their serious effects on autonomy and self-determination.

Health factors therefore have an increasing influence on the quality of life
of elderly women over sixty, up to very old women.

The Berlin Study on the Elderly and the 4th Report of the Federal Government
on the Elderly provide crucial information on the situation
and health of
elderly women.

The Berlin Study on the Elderly ascertained that women in old age are in a
generally worse position than men. Very old women over
85 have one-and-a-half
times the risk of suffering serious disadvantages. This includes needing
long-term care, loneliness and lack
of social support.

The 4th Report on the Elderly entitled "Risks, quality of life and care for
the very old, taking particular account of dementia illnesses"
also proves that
women become in greater need of long-term care than men as they age: Of the
over-nineties, two-thirds of women need
long-term care, as against 42 percent of
men.

13. Article 13: Equal rights of women and men in the economic,
social and cultural fields

Article 13

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women in other areas of economic and social
life in order
to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, the same rights, in
particular

a) The right to family benefits;

b) The right to bank loans, mortgages and other forms of financial
credit;

c) The right to participate in recreational activities, sports and all
aspects of cultural life.

a) Those who bring up children make a contribution for society as a whole.
Recognising this educational service and relieving parents
of some of the costs
they have to bear for their children is the fundamental objective of the
equalisation of family benefits and
services.

The policy of the Federal Government aims to achieve sustained strengthening
of families' material (and social) resources. It is characterised
by the
recognition that effective family policy must be linked to different phases and
situations in life. In addition to the tool
of the fiscal equalisation of family
benefits and services by means of the child benefit system and allowances for
children, there
is thus a system of promotion, of targeted content and
chronologically limited duration, orientated in line with the family situation
and situation in life. Both – namely the equalisation of family benefits
and services and specific assistance – were
expanded and much improved by
the Federal Government in the period under report, namely 1998 to 2001. The
Federal Government will
examine in the further expansion of economic assistance
for families which statutory measures are to be taken as a consequence of
the
judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court dated 3 April 2001 to take
account of families in long-term care insurance, and
to implement this in good
time by 31 December 2004.

13.1 Child benefit and allowances for children

A further development of income tax family promotion was effected taking
account of the constitutional preconditions and the fiscal
policy context. The
Federal Constitutional Court ruled on 10 November 1998 that the regulations
of the Income Tax Act applicable
at that time regarding the deduction of
childcare costs and of a household allowance were incompatible with
Article 6 of the Basic
Law. Married parents were largely excluded from
claiming these provisions. The Federal Constitutional Court valued this in
comparison
to unmarried parents as a violation against the special principle of
equality contained in Art. 6 of the Basic Law (Protection of
marriage and the
family) and placed Parliament under an obligation to create by 1 January
2000 at the latest a new regulation regarding
the fiscal consideration of the
need for care, as well as by 1 January 2002 at the latest to re-define the
fiscal consideration of
educational needs, also included in the minimum standard
of living for children.

After the Federal Government had increased child benefit for the first and
second child by DM 30 each per child from DM 220 to DM
250 as on
1 January 1999, in response to the constitutional caselaw the Act on Family
Promotion dated 22 December 1999 not only made
the de facto standard of
living requirement tax-free from 2000 onwards, but also the need for care as a
part of the minimum standard
of living of a child. The requirement of the
Federal Constitutional Court was met by introducing a standardised care
allowance of
DM 3,024 per child in section 32 subsection 6 of the
Income Tax Act (EStG). This care allowance was granted irrespectively of civil
status or of whether the parents worked and with no proof of costs actually
incurred up to an age limit of 16. It replaced the deduction
of childcare costs
which had applied until then and which was restricted to single parents. Just
like in 1999, the new regulation
applying from the start of 2000 focused on the
increase in child benefit, namely by another DM 20 for the first and second
child
to DM 270 per month.

13.2 Equalisation of family benefits and services 2002

The Second Act on the Promotion of Families, which entered into force on
1 January 2002, also met the constitutional mandate with
regard to taking
account of the need for education. The previous care allowance of DM 3,024
is in turn supplemented, in the system
of offsetting of child benefit and the
effect of allowances, by an educational component. For older children, the care
and educational
need is replaced by the training needs. Hence from 2002 with all
children to be taken into account a uniform allowance of €
2,160
(DM 4,224) was set. The possibility for single parents to have this
allowance fully transferred to themselves has been made
even more attractive by
increasing the allowance, and in many cases can lead to considerable relief
already for those on a medium
income.

Taking account of a child's educational requirements irrespectively of civil
status replaces the household allowance that was previously
restricted to single
persons. In doing so, Parliament used its scope, and instead of immediate
abolition provided for socially acceptable,
gradual reduction of the household
allowance by 2005. The steps taken here are parallel to the relief phases of the
tax reform.

This time too the increase in child benefit which particularly benefits
lower- and medium-income families was placed at the focus
of improved family
promotion. The first and second child benefit was increased for the third time
in this legislative period, once
more by DM 30 from DM 270 to its
present level of € 154 (DM 301.20).

As to taking children into account fiscally, all parents are on principle
treated equally. In taxation of parents, an amount corresponding
to the minimum
standard of living of their children is left tax-free because parents with
children entitled to maintenance can in
general afford less than persons without
children with the same level of income. This is made possible by child benefit
and the allowances
for children. In the current year, child benefit is always
paid as a fiscal remuneration. Child benefit hence replaces the deduction
of the allowances for children in the income tax calculation. With the income
tax assessment, the tax office then examines ex officio
whether this keeps the
minimum standard of living of the children tax free. If child benefit does not
comply with the freedom from
tax required by the constitution, the allowances
for children are deducted from income, and the child benefit already received is
offset against the fiscal impact of the allowances. In this case, the
equalisation of family benefits and services is restricted
to the necessary
freedom from tax. If child benefit goes beyond this, it serves to promote
families, largely families with a lower
income and several children.

For children under the age of 14, the Second Act to Promote Families permits
from 2002 onwards a deduction for proven income-related
care costs of
€ 1,500 (roughly DM 3,000) if these costs exceed an amount of
€ 1,548 (roughly DM 3,024). With a gainful
employment, higher
costs are of necessity caused by care of the child in a day-care centre or by
child minders. The tax deduction
makes it easier to bear these costs. However,
it may naturally only be an element of an improvement in the reconciliation of
family
and work. This regulation at the same time takes account of the special
situation of single parents who particularly rely on gainful
employment and
childcare.

By contrast, it is no longer possible to deduct special expenses for domestic
staff. If household help is employed for childcare,
the cost may however be
taken into account via the abovementioned new regulation.

13.3 Reform of housing benefit

The reform of housing benefit entered into force as on 1 January 2001.
The reform took place with a comparatively high level of housing
benefit in the
new Länder. Recipients of housing benefit in the old Länder receive a
monthly average of roughly DM 83 (€
42) more housing benefit
than before. This is an increase of more than 50%. Large families can even claim
an average of almost DM
120 (€ 60) more. 420,000 households
which were previously not entitled to receive housing benefit will in future be
entitled
to housing benefit for the first time or again. The improvements in
benefits amount to DM 1.4 billion (€ 0.72 billion) annually.
The
Federal Government has hence sustainably improved the circumstances of
low-income households. With the reform of housing benefit,
housing benefit in
the East and the West has finally been combined. Reductions in housing benefit
possible in individual cases in
the new Länder are compensated for by a
hardship case regulation.

Single parents with children under 12, as a rule women, may receive higher
housing benefit payments than other comparable households
because they can use a
special income allowance.

13.4 Training promotion reform

The Federal Government has set the stage in its field of competence with the
reform of individual training promotion (BAföG).
With the Act to Reform
Training Promotion (Ausbildungsförderungsreformgesetz - AföRG) which
entered into force on 1 April
2001 the Federal Government tangibly improved
individual training promotion in order to facilitate better access to studies,
in particular
to children and young people from low-income families. An annual
sum of more than DM 1 billion in additional funds (including DM
500
million from the Federal Budget) means that roughly 80,000 new entitled persons
are promoted during their training. The defined
requirements are being
considerably increased, the maximum monthly rate increases from DM 1,030 to
€ 585 / DM 1,140. Furthermore,
child benefit is no longer counted,
allowances have been increased and promotion in the old and new Länder has
been brought
into line. A burden ceiling of € 10,000 has been
introduced for the whole loan burden.

Promotion of students with children has been considerably improved; this
applies both as to the improved consideration of care of
children in the first
years of life, and with regard to taking into account the need for care up to
the age of ten.

13.5 Child-raising benefit

Initial reference is made to the description in Part II, 11.5.1.
Furthermore, it can be stated that the new Federal Child-Raising
Benefit Act
also improves the preconditions for child-raising benefit with which the Federal
Government rewards childcare by the
parents in the first stage of a child's
life. Child-raising benefit is a benefit, funded from taxes, dependent on income
for mothers
or fathers whether or not they are in gainful employment
– in other words it is not a replacement for a wage – if
they
meet the personal preconditions for child-raising benefit. From 2001,
higher income limits apply to unrestricted child-raising benefit
from the
seventh month of the child's life for the first time since 1986. The income
threshold for a family with four children increases
by almost 25% as a result.
Child-raising benefit is up to € 307 per month and can be paid until
the child's second birthday.
During child-raising benefit, the parent who
receives child-raising benefit may at the same time work up to 30 hours per week
(under
the old law it was only 19 hours per week). The new law also offers to
parents the alternative to child-raising benefit of receiving
up to
€ 460 per month, but then only up to the first birthday of the child,
after which no further child-raising benefit is
paid. For young parents who wish
to return to full-time work soon, for instance also for fathers, this budget
alternative of up to
€ 460 per month is nevertheless interesting. In
the first six months of the child's life, more than 90% of parents receive
the
full child-raising benefit because of the high income threshold. From the
seventh month of the child's life, the new income thresholds
are also much
lower, and almost 50% of those originally entitled only continue to receive the
full child-raising benefit, whilst
somewhat more than 30% receive a reduced
child-raising benefit and almost 20% no longer receive child-raising benefit
because the
creditable taxable income of the parents is so far above the
statutory income thresholds.

In 2000 roughly 703,000 parents (of whom roughly 97% women) received
child-raising benefit in the first year of their child's life.
In the second
year of the child's life the number of parents receiving child-raising benefit
was lower (roughly 506,000, 86% of those
potentially entitled).

13.6 Financial volume

Only the increase in child benefit by almost DM 80 for the first and
second child relieves the burden on families from 2002 in comparison
to 1998 by
roughly DM 17.7 billion, or € 9.1 billion. The whole volume of
family policy benefits was € 40.2 billion in
1998 and will be
€ 59.2 billion in 2002, corresponding to an increase of
47 %.

b) The right to take up bank loans, mortgages and other forms of financial
credit is enjoyed equally by women and by men. There are
no gender-specific
differences here in the Federal Republic.

c) Reference is made to the information provided in Article 10
No. 10.1 (Women and sport).

The following additions can be made as to the participation of women in
cultural life:

The goal of the measures of the Federal Government is to both communicate the
significance of women as creating art and culture to
a broad public and to
guarantee access by women to cultural life. In this context, the Federal
Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior
Citizens, Women and Youth for instance
awarded the Gabriele Münter Prize which is among the best-known awards in
the fine arts
in the Federal Republic of Germany and addresses amongst others
female artists over 40. With the promotion of the "Politea" and "Unequal
sisters" exhibitions the intention was amongst other things to stress the
contribution made by women towards the development of the
Federal Republic of
Germany after the 2nd World War. For the European level, the promoted exhibition
was "50 European Women". The
goal of equal participation by women in cultural
life is also served by the promotion of the activities of the Association of the
Communities of Female Artists and Art Sponsors. Reference is made in other
respects to the information provided in Part I 3.4.14.

14. Article 14: Equal rights of rural women and men

Article 14

(1) States Parties shall take into account the particular problems faced
by rural women and the significant roles which rural women
play in the economic
survival of their families, including their work in the non-monetized sectors of
the economy, and shall take
all appropriate measures to ensure the application
of the provisions of this Convention to women in rural areas.

(2) States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women in rural areas in order to ensure,
on a basis of
equality of men and women, that they participate in and benefit from rural
development and, in particular, shall ensure
to such women the right

a) To participate in the elaboration and implementation of development
planning at all levels;

b) To have access to adequate health care facilities, including
information, counselling and services in family planning;

c) To benefit directly from social security programmes;

d) To obtain all types of training and education, formal and non-formal,
including that relating to functional literacy, as well as,
inter alia, the
benefit of all community and extension services, in order to increase their
technical proficiency;

e) To organize self-help groups and co-operatives in order to obtain equal
access to economic opportunities through employment or
self-employment;

f) To participate in all community activities;

g) To have access to agricultural credit and loans, marketing facilities,
appropriate technology and equal treatment in land and agrarian
reform as well
as in land resettlement schemes;

h) To enjoy adequate living conditions, particularly in relation to
housing, sanitation, electricity and water supply, transport and
communications.

There is no addition to the previous Report and to Part I 4.

15. Article 15: Equal treatment of women and men in terms of legal
capacity and choice of place of residence

Article 15

(1) States Parties shall accord to women equality with men before the
law.

(2) States Parties shall accord to women, in civil matters, a legal
capacity identical to that of men and the same opportunities to
exercise that
capacity. In particular, they shall give women equal rights to conclude
contracts and to administer property and shall
treat them equally in all stages
of procedure in courts and tribunals.

(3) States Parties agree that all contracts and all other private
instruments of any kind with a legal effect which is directed at
restricting the
legal capacity of women shall be deemed null and void.

(4) States Parties shall accord to men and women the same rights with
regard to the law relating to the movement of persons and the
freedom to choose
their residence and domicile.

There is no addition to the previous Report. As already described in the
First Report, women and men have the same rights in these
sectors.

16. Article 16: Equal rights of women and men in all matters
relating to marriage and family relations

Article 16

(1) States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage
and family
relations and in particular shall ensure, on a basis of equality of men and
women:

a) The same right to enter into marriage;

b) The same right freely to choose a spouse and to enter into marriage
only with their free and full consent;

c) The same rights and responsibilities during marriage and at its
dissolution;

d) The same rights and responsibilities as parents, irrespective of their
marital status, in matters relating to their children; in
all cases the
interests of the children shall be paramount;

e) The same rights to decide freely and responsibly on the number and
spacing of their children and to have access to the information,
education and
means to enable them to exercise these rights;

f) The same rights and responsibilities with regard to guardianship,
wardship, trusteeship and adoption of children, or similar institutions
where
these concepts exist in national legislation; in all cases the interests of the
children shall be paramount;

g) The same personal rights as husband and wife, including the right to
choose a family name, a profession and an occupation;

h) The same rights for both spouses in respect of the ownership,
acquisition, management, administration, enjoyment and disposition
of property,
whether free of charge or for a valuable consideration.

(2) The betrothal and the marriage of a child shall have no legal effect,
and all necessary action, including legislation, shall be
taken to specify a
minimum age for marriage and to make the registration of marriages in an
official registry compulsory.

The following additions can be made to update the previous Report:

16.1 Reform of marital and family law

There have been extensive reforms of matrimonial and family law in the
Federal Republic of Germany:

TheAct Reforming Marriage Law (Gesetz zur Neuordnung des
Eheschließungsrechts)(Marriage Law Act-
Eheschließungsrechtsgesetz), which entered into force on 1 July 1998, has
repealed the ban, previously applicable to women,
on marriage during the
prescribed "waiting period". Even under the previous law, the ban on marriage
during the waiting period -
a woman was not supposed to re-marry within ten
months of the dissolution or annulment of her previous marriage, unless she had
given
birth to a child in the meantime - was hardly ever applied anyway, as the
registry offices granted an exemption almost without exception.
The
inappropriate ban on marriage during the prescribed waiting period has been
eliminated for this reason.

The Act Reforming the Law of Parent and Child, which also entered into force
on 1 July 1998, brought about a fundamental reform in the law of parent
and child. The main objectives of this reform are as follows:

• Children's rights are to be improved and the best interests of
children promoted in the best possible way.

• The legal positions of the parents are also improved and protected
against unnecessary state intervention, provided this is
compatible with the
best interests of the children.

• Legal differences between children born in and out of wedlock, which
still existed in some sectors, are eliminated to the
greatest possible
extent.

The provisions contained in the Civil Code (BGB) in which the law on parent
and child is contained, link after the reform only in
a few, necessary areas to
the fact that the parents of a child are not married (right of custody, care
maintenance). The terms legitimate
and illegitimate child are no longer used in
the Civil Code. The provisions on child maintenance apply in equal
measure to children, irrespective of whether or not their parents are married
(sections 1601 et seqq. of the Civil
Code).

The regulations relate mainly to parentage law, to the law on parental
custody and rights of access, to the maintenance of a mother
who is not married
to the father of her child, to the law on family names, to the law on adoption
and to the law concerning court
proceedings in matters relating to the law of
parent and child.

In contrast to the previous law, the new parentage law no longer
assumes that a child born within a certain period after the divorce or annulment
of a marriage is the offspring of the
mother's former husband. This assumption
of paternity proved to be unrealistic in practice - partly also because of the
year of separation
usually preceding the divorce - and led to a large number of
petitions to have a child declared illegitimate.

Also, children born while divorce proceedings are pending, who are thus
imputed to the mother's previous husband, can in future be
deemed to be children
of the mother's new partner following a simpler procedure. The prerequisite for
this is that all those involved
must consent to the recognition of paternity by
the mother's new partner. The rights of the child's mother are strengthened. In
future,
she (and no longer the child) has to consent to the recognition of
paternity.

The previous law on parental custody and rights of access did not provide for
joint custody by parents who are not married to one
another. The father of an
illegitimate child could only obtain parental custody by way of declaration of
legitimacy, in which case,
however, the mother lost her parental custody. The
reform of the law of parent and child now also gives parents who are not married
with one another the possibility of establishing joint parental custody. The
prerequisite for this is that the parents make a corresponding
declaration of
parental custody. Otherwise, the mother is entitled to exercise parental
custody. New regulations on parental custody
following separation and divorce
are also intended to strengthen parents' joint responsibility. The parents
retain the joint right
of parental custody in these cases, unless one of the
parents applies for the sole right of parental custody to be granted.

The care maintenance which the mother of an illegitimate child can
claim from the father has been expanded in terms of the prerequisites for a
claim and
the duration of the claim first of all under the 1995 Act Amending the
Act on Assistance for Pregnant Women and Families. Under the
Act Reforming the
Law of Parent and Child, under certain circumstances maintenance payments can be
granted for longer than the existing
3-year limit.

The Act Reforming the Law of Parent and Child also aims at further
development of the existing law on family names. If the parents bear a
common family name, the child is also given this married name at birth.
Additionally, the law on family names
is in future to be geared not to a
distinction between legitimate and illegitimate birth, but to parental custody
for the child.
If only one parent is entitled to exercise parental custody, by
law the child is to be given the name of this parent as its name
at birth. If
the parents have joint parental custody, they can choose the name of the father
or the name of the mother as the child's
name at birth.

The Act Abolishing Statutory Ex Officio Guardianship and Reforming the
Right to Legal Assistance (Legal Assistance Act - Beistandschaftsgesetz),
which entered into force on 1 July 1998 at the same time as the Act to
Reform the Law of Parent and Child, provides for further
strengthening of the
position of the woman. The law previously existing in the old Federal
Länder was such that, following the
birth of an illegitimate child, the
Youth Welfare Office as a rule became the child's guardian for certain spheres
of activity by
operation of law, e.g. for establishing paternity, pressing
maintenance claims and the settlement of the child's rights of inheritance
and
to compulsory portions in the event of the death of the father or his relatives.
Upon the abolition of ex officio guardianship,
it was replaced by legal
assistance from the Youth Welfare Office, which will be responsible for
establishing paternity and pressing
maintenance claims, which can be applied for
by all parents with sole right of parental custody.

At this point we also mention the Violence Protection Act and the
Act to Improve Children's Rights which have already been dealt with in
Part I 2.8 and Part I 2.9 respectively.

16.2 Law on inheritance and on maintenance

With the Inheritance Law Equal Opportunities Act, which also entered
into force on 1 April 1998, a child whose father is not married to its
mother is fully entitled to inherit as
well as the other relatives of its
father. Previously, the child whose father was not married to the mother was
only entitled to
a financial replacement inheritance right.

The Part of the Civil Code which expressly links to the fact that a child's
parents are not married to one another ("Special provisions
for the child and
its parents not married to one another", sections 1615a, 1615l, 1615m,
1615n and 1615o of the Civil Code), primarily
governs maintenance claims of the
mother against the father. The child is granted the opportunity to obtain an
interim injunction
against the father to pay maintenance. This application for
an interim injunction to pay child maintenance can also be filed by the
mother
before the birth. This provision is intended to guarantee that the child
receives its maintenance payments on time and that
these are not delayed because
of laborious court proceedings being pending.

If a child's parents are not married to one another, the mother has the
following maintenance claims against the father:

The father is obliged to give the mother child maintenance for the period of
six weeks prior to and eight weeks after the birth of
the child. The father must
also meet the costs arising outside this period as a result of the pregnancy or
the birth (section 1615l
subsection 1 of the Civil Code).

Furthermore, the father is obliged over and above this period to pay the
mother maintenance if as a result of the pregnancy or of
an illness caused by
the pregnancy or the birth she is unable to exercise gainful employment, or if
she cannot be expected to exercise
gainful employment because of caring for or
bringing up the child. This duty of maintenance of the father begins at the
earliest
four months prior to the birth; it ends three years after the birth
unless, taking the interests of the child into account in particular,
it would
be grossly unfair to refuse to extend the maintenance right after this period
has expired.

The essential restriction of the right to maintenance to three years is based
on the fact that the father primarily bears co-responsibility
for the child. As
a rule it is not necessary for the mother to devote herself to caring for the
child all day after it has turned
three. Experience has shown that the education
of a child after reaching the age of three is guaranteed if care can be provided
in
a day-care centre. This possibility exists since the child has a right to a
kindergarten place from this age onwards.

Restricting the right to maintenance to three years does not apply if this
would be grossly unfair taking the interests of the child
into account. This
means that the claim can be extended beyond three years if special interests of
the child require greater solidarity
between the parents. Such a case may apply
for instance because of a disability of the child or because of a lack of other
suitable
care possibilities.

If these preconditions are met, there is a compelling duty to provide
maintenance from the father, in exactly the same way as with
all other
statutorily governed maintenance claims targeting him by the child and the
mother.

Appendices

Appendix ITables and figures

Tables 1 and 2: Population of Germany

Table 3: Women in work

Table 4: Women in education

Appendix IIOverview of measures carried out since 1998 to realise
the concept of equal rights

1. Statutes

2. Other measures and events with relevance in terms of policy on equal
rights (since May 1998)

3. Measures carried out by the Länder equality agencies

3.1 Focus of work

3.2 General and specific measures and programmes

4. Publications of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens,
Women and Youth on equality policy topics

4.1 Series of publications of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs,
Senior Citizens, Women and Youth

4.2 Brochures, reports, documentation and material on the equality policy
of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens,
Women and Youth

5. Publications of other Federal Ministries and agencies on equality-related
topics

Appendix III Consideration of reports by the
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women dated
1 February 2000

Appendix I: Tables and figures

Population of Germany

Table: 1 Age structure (31.12.2000)

Age range

Female population

Male population

absolute

proportion of total population

absolute

proportion of total population

0 to 18

7.5 million

9.2 %

8.0 million

9.7 %

18 to 45

15.5 million

18.8 %

16.3 million

19.8 %

45 to 65

10.7 million

13.0 %

10.6 million

12.9 %

65 and older

8.4 million

10.2 %

5.3 million

6.4 %

Total no. of persons: 82,259,540 = 100 %

Table: 2.1 Civil status of the female population
(2000)

Civil status

No. of women

Proportion of the female population

single

15.2 million

36.0 %

married

19.1 million

45.3 %

widowed

5.2 million

12.4 %

divorced

2.6 million

6.3 %

Female total: 42,103,004 = 100 %

Source: Federal Statistical Office

Table: 2.2 Number of children per family (children to 18
years)

Characteristic

Couples with children

Single parents

in millions

proportion in %

in millions

proportion in %

1993

total

7.91

100.0

1.58

100.0

of whom with:

1 child

3.70

46.8

1.10

69.8

2 children

3.20

40.5

0.38

23.9

3 children

0.78

9.9

0.08

4.7

4 and more children

0.21

2.7

0.02

1.5

1996

total

7.67

100.0

1.77

100.0

of whom with:

1 child

3.56

46.4

1.20

67.5

2 children

3.12

40.6

0.46

25.7

3 children

0.78

10.2

0.09

5.2

4 and more children

0.22

2.9

0.03

1.6

1999

total

7.36

100.0

1.95

100.0

of whom with:

1 child

3.45

46.9

1.32

67.5

2 children

2.96

40.2

0.50

25.6

3 children

0.74

10.0

0.11

5.4

4 and more children

0.21

2.9

0.03

1.6

2000

total

7.26

100.0

2.00

100.0

of whom with:

1 child

3.39

46.7

1.35

67.8

2 children

2.93

40.3

0.50

25.2

3 children

0.74

10.1

0.11

5.4

4 and more children

0.21

2.9

0.03

1.6

2001

total

7.11

100.0

2.08

100.0

of whom with:

1 child

3.29

46.3

1.41

67.8

2 children

2.88

40.5

0.53

25.4

3 children

0.73

10.3

0.11

5.4

4 and more children

0.21

3.0

0.03

1.5

Source: Federal Statistical Office

Women in work

Table: 3.1 Number and proportion of women in gainful
employment 1988 – 2001

(Results of the Microcensus)

Year

Total

in 000s

Men

in 000s

Women

in 000s

Proportion of women in %

Former Federal territory

1988

27,366

16,759

10,607

38.8

1989

27,742

16,948

10,794

38.9

1990

29,334

17,585

11,749

40.1

1991

29,684

17,719

11,965

40.3

1992

30,094

17,845

12,249

40.7

1993

29,782

17,621

12,161

40.8

1994

29,397

17,270

12,127

41.3

1995

29,244

17,141

12,102

41.4

1996

29,276

17,002

12,275

41.9

1997

29,200

16,901

12,299

42.1

1998

29,317

16,901

12,416

42.4

1999

29,729

16,991

12,738

42.8

2000

30,009

17,059

12,950

43.2

2001

30,307

17,081

13,226

43.6

Year

Total

in 000s

Men

in 000s

Women

in 000s

Proportion of women in %

New Federal Länder and East Berlin

1991

7,761

4,156

3,605

46.5

1992

6,846

3,778

3,069

44.8

1993

6,599

3,675

2,924

44.3

1994

6,679

3,717

2,961

44.3

1995

6,804

3,797

3,007

44.2

1996

6,706

3,704

3,002

44.8

1997

6,605

3,649

2,957

44.8

1998

6,544

3,609

2,935

44.9

1999

6,673

3,668

3,006

45.0

2000

6,595

3,621

2,974

45.1

2001

6,509

3,549

2,960

45.5

Source: Federal Statistical Office

Table: 3.2 Women in the individual vocational fields and
proportion of women among those in gainful employment in the vocational
field

1) The category "Other/none" was two-thirds divided among secondary general
schools with certificate and one-third specialised vocational
school.

Source: Federal Statistical Office

Table: 4.2.6 Male and female pupils at vocational schools
in the dual system by age

Pupils at vocational schools in the dual system

Pupils

1996/1997

2000/01

Total

Male

Female

Total

Male

Female

Total

1,625,426

970,617

654,809

1,796,903

1,061,026

735,877

of whom aged:

15 years and younger

22,748

14,524

8,224

61,355

37,510

23,845

16 years

143,517

88,833

54,684

153,540

92,696

60,844

17 years

297,177

182,696

114,481

296,028

180,635

115,393

18 years

351,110

212,791

138,319

348,552

212,242

136,310

19 years

302,779

179,080

123,699

312,075

182,513

129,562

20 years

198,977

112,167

86,810

233,903

129,207

104,696

21 years

115,728

61,298

54,430

149,640

78,503

71,137

22 years and older

193,390

119,228

74,162

241,805

147,716

94,089

Source: Federal Statistical Office

Table: 4.3.1 Proportion of female students among those
studying in the first university semester at

higher education institutions

Study year *)

19701)

19801)

19851)

1991

1993

1995

1997

1998

1999

2000

20012)

Higher education institutions total

37.8

40.2

39.8

41.2

44.4

47.8

48.6

48.5

49.3

49.0

48.8

of whom:

Universities

37.7

44.2

44.3

45.5

49.5

53.1

52.9

52.7

53.7

53.4

53.4

Art academies

40.9

45.6

50.5

50.6

53.5

57.6

57.6

56.7

58.3

56.7

56.6

Technical Colleges

-

30.7

28.9

29.4

33.0

36.2

39.2

39.6

39.8

38.9

38.0

*) up to 1985 incl. former Federal territory, from 1991 whole Federal
Republic of Germany

1) summer semester and subsequent winter semester

2) preliminary result

Table 4.3.2 Proportion of female students among those
studying at higher education institutions *)

Year

19701)

19801)

19851)

1991

1993

1995

1997

1998

1999

2000

20012)

Higher education institutions total

30.9

36.7

37.8

39.2

40.2

41.7

43.6

44.5

45.3

46.1

46.7

of whom:

Universities

30.7

38.9

41.1

42.6

43.8

45.5

47.3

48.1

48.9

49.7

50.3

Art academies

40.0

46.3

48.9

51.1

51.9

53.1

54.6

55.2

56.1

56.4

57.0

Technical Colleges

-

28.2

27.4

27.7

29.0

30.7

33.3

34.7

35.9

36.8

37.4

*) winter semester

1) up to 1985 incl. former Federal territory, from 1991 whole Federal
Republic of Germany

2) preliminary result

Source: Federal Statistical Office

Germans taking up studies in the first higher education
institution in the first semester (winter semester)

at universities by groups of subjects in %

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

Law, economics, social sciences

38.3

40.3

41.0

42.7

41.4

44.4

45.2

45.1

46.2

47.8

48.0

Languages, cultural science, sport

67.8

69.7

71.1

71.8

71.5

73.2

72.1

71.7

71.7

72.7

73.0

Mathematics, natural sciences

34.9

35.6

37.5

39.2

40.0

43.8

44.5

43.6

41.9

42.0

40.4

Engineering

12.7

14.8

16.7

19.6

20.3

23.6

23.6

21.9

21.7

22.9

22.7

Human medicine

42.1

49.7

48.3

49.7

51.9

55.4

52.9

53.3

56.5

57.9

63.6

Veterinary medicine

74.4

76.7

78.0

82.0

78.3

80.9

78.0

80.5

82.1

88.0

85.4

Art/aesthetics and art history

68.2

69.4

71.4

70.9

73.8

72.4

72.5

72.2

71.5

74.5

74.9

Agriculture/forestry/nutrition

49.9

51.8

54.1

54.5

56.2

57.9

60.7

59.3

61.5

62.7

61.2

Universities total ...

42.2

44.7

46.4

48.8

49.4

52.7

52.6

51.9

51.6

52.6

52.4

Source: Federal Statistical Office

Germans taking up studies in the first university
semester (winter semester) at Technical Colleges *)

by groups of subjects - proportion of females among
total

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

Law, economics, social sciences

53.7

53.9

54.6

54.6

53.0

53.9

54.0

54.6

56.1

55.6

55.9

Engineering

11.6

13.0

15.6

16.1

16.9

17.9

18.1

19.8

20.3

20.9

20.4

Mathematics, natural sciences

23.0

22.4

19.9

18.4

16.9

19.4

19.0

20.3

20.5

22.5

22.2

Agriculture/forestry/nutrition

44.9

45.5

47.3

49.3

49.6

52.0

55.7

53.1

53.0

54.1

54.2

Art aesthetics and art history

57.7

57.3

61.6

60.0

59.9

60.8

61.0

63.7

63.9

65.7

64.8

Languages, cultural science

78.9

81.2

80.1

75.5

76.6

74.7

77.7

76.2

74.3

71.1

71.2

Technical Colleges total...

28.0

29.6

32.4

32.7

33.7

36.3

37.2

38.9

39.3

39.5

38.7

*) not including Administration Colleges

Source: Federal Statistical Office

Table: 4.4 Women in education and science 2000
total

Women

in %

School-leavers with high school graduation

53.6

New students at higher education institutions

49.2

Students

46.1

Graduates

44.8

Doctoral students

34.3

Academic and artistic staff at higher education institutions

30.4

Lecturers and assistants at higher education institutions

25.1

Lectureship candidates

18.4

C2 professorships

14.9

C3 professorships

11.0

C4 professorships

7.1

Source: Federal Statistical Office

APPENDIX II:

Overview of measures carried out since 1998 to
realise the concept of equal rights

1.) Statutes

April 1998 The Act on Equality under Inheritance law
(Erbrechtsgleichstellungsgesetz) enters into force on 1 April 1998.
This Act affords to children whose fathers are not married to
their mothers full
inheritance rights in addition to the other relatives of the father. Previously,
a child whose father was not
married to the mother was only entitled to a
substitute inheritance right in money.

July 1998 The Act Amending the Civil Code and the Labour Courts
Act (Gesetz zur Änderung des Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuches und des
Arbeitsgerichtsgesetzes) enters into force on 3 July 1998. The
Act is in
response to the judgment of the European Court of Justice dated
22 April 1997 (file ref. C-180-95), in which the Court
reached
the conclusion that the regulations extant in Germany concerning equal treatment
of men and women when initiating employment
were in part incompatible with
European law. In German law, an employer must provide compensation if they have
acted in a discriminatory
manner when initiating employment. The compensation
provided for by section 611a subsection 2 of the Civil Code (BGB) is
designed
to be irrespective of guilt. The employer is also liable for the
misconduct of persons acting on their behalf in filling the post
for them.

July 1998 The Act Reforming the Law of Parent and Child
(Kindschaftsrechtsreformgesetz) and the Legal Assistance Act
(Beistandschaftsgesetz) enter into force. The Act Reforming the Law of Parent
and Child eliminates almost all differences in the
treatment of children born
within and outside wedlock. For the first time, parents who are not married to
one another may assume
parental custody of their children jointly. Under
parentage law, the mother of the child has stronger rights in recognising and
disputing
paternity: Recognition of paternity is only effective with her
consent; the mother of the child receives her own right to dispute
paternity.
The ex officio guardianship of the youth welfare office for children born out of
wedlock is replaced by legal assistance described as an offer of
assistance by the youth welfare offices to be accepted on a voluntary basis for
establishing paternity and
maintenance.

December 1998 The Act to Protect Witnesses in Questioning in
Criminal Proceedings and to Improve Victim Protection - Witness Protection
Act (Gesetz zum Schutz von Zeugen bei Vernehmungen im Strafverfahren und zur
Verbesserung des Opferschutzes - Zeugenschutzgesetz) enters
into force on
1 December 1998. The Witness Protection Act improves the possibilities of a
accessory prosecution incidental to criminal
proceedings. Furthermore, the use
of video technology is introduced in criminal proceedings. Stressful repeat
questioning sessions
can thus be avoided, and victims can be spared the
oppressive hearing atmosphere of the courtroom and the confrontation with the
tormentor. Moreover, it was provided that under certain circumstances counsel
for the witness for questioning or counsel for the
victim could be appointed at
the expense cost of the state for the duration of the proceedings.

January 1999 Amendment to the Federal Child Benefit Act
(Bundeskindergeldgesetz)

The child benefit for the first and second child increased as on
1 January 1999 and is DM 250 each (= € 127.82) per month.

August 1999 The Second Act Amending Book III of the Social Code
(Zweites Gesetz zur Änderung des Sozialgesetzbuches III - SGB III)
enters into force on 1 August 1999. Improvements relevant
to women were
made in labour promotion law.

January 2000 Amendment to the Federal Child Benefit Act

The child benefit for the first and second child is increased as on
1 January 2000 and is DM 270 each (= € 138.05) per month.

Introduction of a care allowance of DM 3,024 (= € 1,546.15) for
children up to the age of 16. Together with the previous child
allowance
amounting to DM 6,912 (= € 3,534.05) the fiscal allowances for
children are increased to DM 9,936 (= € 5,080).

January 2000Judgment of the European Court of Justice (ECJ)declares statutory regulations in Germany excluding women from the voluntary
armed service in the Armed Forces to be incompatible
with the European equal
treatment directive 76/207/EEC.

June 2000 Act Amending the Aliens Act (Gesetz zur Änderung des
Ausländergesetzes) enters into force on 1 June 2000. Section 19
of the Aliens Act governs the
independent right of residence of foreign spouses
in the event of the dissolution of the marital community. Foreign spouses now
receive
their own right of residence in the event of separation after two years,
instead of the previous four. The hardship clause, in accordance
with which an
independent right of residence may be awarded before this period expires, has
also been redesigned.

July 2000 Judgment of the European Court of Justice (ECJ)confirms the compatibility with European equal treatment directive
76/207/EEC of measures to promote equal opportunities for women
and men, in
particular by eliminating the de facto inequalities harming women's
opportunities.

November 2000 Act to Outlaw Violence in Education and Amending the Law on
Child Maintenance (Gesetz zur Ächtung der Gewalt in der Erziehung und
zur Änderung des Kindesunterhaltsrechts). TheAct pronounces a right
for children to be brought up without violence and prohibits physical
punishment, emotional injury and other
humiliating actions.

December 2000 The Amendment of Article 12a para. 4 second
sentence of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz)enters into force on23 December 2000. Voluntary service by women using firearms in the
Federal Armed Forces now has a constitutional basis, and women
are enabled to
gain access to all fields of the armed forces.

January 2001New regulations on the Federal Child-Raising Benefit
Act (Bundeserziehungsgeldgesetz) enter into force on 1 January 2001.
They apply to children born or adopted after 1 January 2001. The
entry into
force of the new Act replaces the term child-raising leave with the new
designation parental leave. The amendments to
the Federal Child-Raising Benefit
Act improve the framework for the compatibility of family and work and the
financial situation
of families:

• For the first time since 1986, the income limits for child-raising
benefit have been increased. Child-raising benefit is now
also offered as a
budget (higher amount – shorter term).

• For the first time, mothers and fathers may take parental leave
(previously referred to as child-raising leave) at the same
time within an
unchanged duration of a maximum of three years.

• On principle both parents have a legal right to work part-time during
parental leave, which applies in companies with more
than 15 employees. Mothers
and fathers may now work up to 30 hours per week each instead of the previous
19. This opens up to parents,
and to fathers in particular, new possibilities of
sharing gainful employment and family work.

• There is a right to return to the previous working hours on expiry of
parental leave.

• There is a possibility to take a year's parental leave between the
child's third and eighth birthdays if the employer agrees.

January 2001 The Act on Part-Time Working and Fixed-Term Employment
Contracts (Gesetz über Teilzeitarbeit und befristete
Arbeitsverträge) enters into force on 1 January 2001. This Act grants
for the
first time a general legal entitlement to work part-time in private
industry in companies with more than 15 employees if no operational
reasons
exist opposing this.

March 2001 Entry into force of the "Brussels II Ordinance", which in
all EU Member States apart from Denmark creates uniform regulations as to court
jurisdiction and the recognition and execution
of rulings in marital matters and
in proceedings regarding parental responsibility of both parents for their
children.

July 2001 The Ninth Book of the Social Code (Neuntes
Sozialgesetzbuch IX)enters into force on 1 July 2001. The main
concern of the Ninth Book of the Social Code is to coordinate the services and
cooperation
of the service-providers by means of effective tools. The goal of
the social services is to promote social participation by persons
living with
and threatened by disabilities, in particular at work.

July 2001 The Act to Reform the Works Constitution Act (Gesetz
zur Reform des Betriebsverfassungsgesetzes) enters into force on 28 July
2001. It improves equal opportunities of women and
men in companies.

August 2001 The Life Partnerships Act
(Lebenspartnerschaftsgesetz) enters into force on 1 August 2001.

Homosexual couples can have their partnership officially registered.
Same-sex life partners are recognised as family members. They
are obliged to
care for and support one another, to plan their lives together, and they enter
into maintenance obligations towards
one another.

December 2001 The Federal Act on Implementing the Concept of Equal
Opportunities between Women and Men (Gesetz zur Durchsetzung der
Gleichstellung von Frauen und Männern -
Bundesgleichstellungsdurchsetzungsgesetz) enters into force
on 5 December
2001. This Act makes it possible to give preference to women with the same
aptitude, qualifications and professional
achievements in training, recruitment
and promotion in areas where women are underrepresented, taking account of
individual cases.
It entails improvements in reconciling family and work and
provides both for the promotion of equality as an express task for all
employees
with managerial functions and provides more competences for the equality
commissioners. It contains further regulations
on part-time work. Thus, posts
with superior and management functions are also to be advertised to be filled on
a part-time basis
unless compelling official reasons stand in the way of this.
Furthermore, it is to be made easier for part-time public servants with
family
duties to return to full-time employment.

January 2002 Amendment to the Federal Child Benefit Act

Child benefit is increased as on 1 January 2002 and is now also for the
first and second child as previously already for the third
child Euro 154
each per month. From the fourth child benefit is Euro 179 each per
month.

January 2002 The Act to Improve Civil Court Protection in the Event
of Violent Acts and Unwelcome Advances, as well as to Facilitate Relinquishment
of the Marital Home in the Event of Separation - Act to Protect Against
Violence (Gesetz zur Verbesserung des zivilgerichtlichen Schutzes bei
Gewalttaten und Nachstellungen sowie zur Erleichterung der Überlassung
der
Ehewohnung bei Trennung – Gewaltschutzgesetz) enters into force. In
addition to introducing the simplified relinquishment
of the marital home, it
also contains express regulations for a ban on contact, harassment and coming
close. If violent acts have
taken place in close social proximity, the Act gives
a right to relinquishment of the home, if the offender and victim – in
most cases the women - had established a joint household in the long term.

January 2002 The Act to Improve the Legal and Social Situation of
Prostitutes (Gesetz zur Verbesserung der rechtlichen und sozialen Situation
der Prostituierten) enters into force. Prostitutes now have the legal
possibility to exercise their work either on a self-employed basis under good
working conditions which they establish themselves,
or in dependent employment
with social insurance. The punishability of promotion of prostitution and of
pimping was restricted to
cases of exploitation of the personal and economic
dependence of prostitutes.

January 2002 The Job AQTIV Act (Job-AQTIV-Gesetz) enters into
force on 1 January 2002. Aqtiv stands for the German words meaning
Activating, Qualifying, Training, Investing and
Communicating. The goal of the Act is to promote the equality of women
and men on the labour market by expanding specific labour market
policy measures
for women. Furthermore, the Job AQTIV Act contributes towards better
reconciliation of family and work. This goal
is served by increasing the
allowances for childcare costs (€ 130 per child per month) if
unemployed persons take part in measures
of occupational basic and further
training. From 2003 onwards for persons subject to obligatory social insurance,
the gap periods
related to maternity benefit and childcare up until the child's
third birthday apply once more as contribution periods in unemployment
insurance.

January 2002 The Reform of the Advancement Further Training
Assistance Act ("Meister-BAFöG") enters into force on 1 January
2002. Better promotion conditions now apply to families with children and to
single parents.

January 2002 Ratification of the Optional Protocol to the United Nations
CEDAW Convention by the Federal Government on 15 January 2002. The
CEDAW Optional Protocolenters into force for the Federal Republic three
months after ratification, i.e. on 15 April 2002.

April 2002 The Act to further Improve Children's Rights –
Children's Rights Improvement Act (Gesetz zur weiteren Verbesserung von
Kinderrechten - Kinderrechteverbesserungsgesetz)enters into force on
12 April 2002. In particular it facilitates the removal of violent persons
from the immediate environment of
the child.

May 2002 The Act on Equal Opportunities for Disabled Persons
(Gesetz zur Gleichstellung behinderter Menschen - BGG) enters into force on
1 May 2002. The Act on Equal Opportunities for Disabled
Persons opens up to
disabled persons new possibilities for self-determination and equal
participation in social life. By creating
barrier-free environments on a broad
scale and prohibiting discrimination by those exercising governmental power, the
prohibition
of discrimination contained in Article 3 of the Basic Law was
comprehensively implemented. To enforce equal rights for women and
men, the
special concerns of disabled women are to be taken into account and the existing
discrimination eliminated (section 2 BGG
Disabled women). Furthermore, it
is made clear that special measures are permissible here to promote the de facto
enforcement of
equal rights for women with disabilities and to eliminate
existing discrimination.

June 2002 The Amendment to the Maternity Protection Act
(Mutterschutzgesetz) enters into force on 20 June 2002. The maternity
protection period for all mothers totals at least 14 weeks,
i.e. including those
who give birth earlier than expected. It was additionally clarified that the
bans on employment under the law
on maternity protection count as working hours
for calculating leave.

2.) Other measures and events with relevance in terms of policy on equal
rights (since May 1998)

May 1998 The Second Report of the Federal Government on the
Proportion of Women in major Bodies within the Sphere of Influence of the
Federation
(Zweiter Bericht der Bundesregierung über den Anteil von
Frauen in wesentlichen Gremien im Einflussbereich des Bundes)is
submitted to the German Federal Parliament.

June 1999 Adoption of the "Women and work" programme. TheFederal Government's "Women and work" programme includes amongst others
measures on the promotion of women in private industry, awards
to exemplary
enterprises which are earned by structuring of working hours, establishing
childcare facilities or targeted promotion
of women, such as by the Total
E-Quality prize or the family and work audit. The stage has been set for small
start-ups, for instance,
with the German Equalisation Bank's new STARTGELD loan
programme, which targets the promotion of women starting up in business. Further
measures serve to expand the application spectrum for young women, especially in
the IT sector. A further goal is to improve the
framework for reconciliation of
family and work for mothers and fathers, whilst at the same time encouraging a
new perception for
men. This includes making child-raising leave flexible and
increasing the income limits for receipt of child-raising benefit. This
legal
amendment is accompanied by a campaign targeting fathers.

December 1999 With the Plan of Action to Combat Violence against
Women, the Federal Government for the first time submitted a comprehensive
overall concept for all levels of the fight against violence.
This is intended
to achieve structural changes: From prevention, through work with offenders and
better networking of assistance
offerings for victims through to legal measures
such as the Act to protect against Violence for women and greater
awareness-creation
among the public. The "Act to protect against Violence"
provides for simplified relinquishment of the marital dwelling and statutory
regulations for a ban on contact, harassment and coming close imposed on the
violent partner. The Plan of Action strengthens cooperation
between state
institutions and non-governmental projects, promoting the national networking of
assistance offerings and the relatively
recent area of work with offenders.

September 2000 Amendment of the Joint Rules of Procedure (Gemeinsame
Geschäftsordnung der Bundesministerien) as on 1 September 2000. (GMBl.
p. 526). The Rules apply to all Federal Ministries
and declare the equality
of women and men to be the overall guiding principle within the meaning of
Gender Mainstreaming. The Federation's
legal and administrative provisions are
in future to be written in gender-neutral language.

December 2000 The Federal Government submits to the German Federal
Parliament the Fourth Report on the Advancement of Women in the Federal
Service in the period under report1995 - 1998 and the Draft of the
Act on Equal Opportunities in the Federal Administration and in the Courts of
the Federation.

January 2001 On 2 January 2001, 244 female recruits for the first
time started their voluntary armed service in the Federal Armed Forces. The
opening of the Federal Armed Forces for this voluntary armed service for women
is new, and hence a challenge for the Federal Armed
Forces, as well as for women
who have fought for their right to render armed service.

May 2001Report on the health situation of women in Germany.
Astock-take taking account of the different trends in Eastern and
Western Germany. This report, published by the Federal Ministry for
Family
Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, provides for the first time data and
extensive scientific knowledge on the health
of women at Federal level, as well
as a description and analysis of gender- and class-specific differences.

July 2001 The Federal Government reaches an agreement on the
promotion of equal opportunities in private industry with the national
associations of German industry.

May 2002Report on the Occupational and Income Situation of Women
and Men. The Federal Government submits to the German Federal Parliament a
comprehensive report on the wage and income situation of women and
men.

May 2002 The "Third Report of the Federal Government on the
Proportion of Women in Major Bodies in the Field of the Federation" (3rd
Bodies Report) is adopted by the Federal Cabinet. It shows a slight increase in
the proportion of women in the bodies in the
field of influence of the
Federation. The Federal Equal Opportunities Act for the Federal Service
increased women's chances of reaching
managerial positions. This also increases
the opportunities to appoint more women to high-ranking bodies since bodies are
mostly
occupied with managerial staff.

June 2002Study of "The role of the Father in the Family". The
study investigates the role of fathers in the family development process and
reaches interesting conclusions concerning the
basic preconceptions of
fatherhood and the factors that influence it.

3.) Measures carried out by the Länder equality
agencies

3.1 Focus of work

a)

School, education and training

b)

Working life, vocational promotion of women

c)

Reconciling family and work

d)

Reintegration into working life

e)

Violence against women and girls

f)

Foreign women

g)

Women in science and research, research into women

h)

Social security for women

i)

Housing, urban, transport and regional planning

j)

Local policy on women

k)

Promotion of girls

l)

m)

Legal language

Women's non-governmental organisations

n)

Health

o)

Lesbians and gays

p)

Women in art, culture and sport

q)

Women with disabilities

r)

Women and bodies

s)

Women, media, public relations work and other measures

t)

Gender Mainstreaming

3.2 General and specific measures and programmes

(This list is not exhaustive. It covers measures from 1998 to July
2002.) The summary is in alphabetical order of the Länder.
Measures have
been brought to the front which are being carried out by several Länder.

- Training of girls in girls' classes to become computer and
telecommunications systems electronics specialists (Berlin)

- Results of the pilot trial by the Bund/Länder Commission for
Educational Planning and Research Promotion entitled "Vocational
orientation for
girls and boys - a pilot trial to test, develop and implement work-orientated
and gender-aware training" (Brandenburg)

- Empirical study entitled: Life planning on reserve. Boys and girls in
Brandenburg between the training and employment systems (Brandenburg)

- School form and supra-subject teaching material for years 7 to 11
(Brandenburg)

- Material on vocational and life planning: Division of labour in the East
and West after 1945 (Brandenburg)

- Specialist conference on co-education "All in the same boat" (Bremen)

- Mentoring in vocational orientation of girls (Bremen)

- Project entitled vocational orientation for girls in the IT area
(Bremen)

- Part-time training measures for young mothers (Bremen)

- Events to motivate girls to deal with computers and new media occupations
(Bremen)

- Promotion of the media competence of girls and boys: "Learning to surf the
net" (Hamburg)

- Brochure entitled "Girls can become anything" for pupils and their parents
(Hamburg)

- Increased involvement of parents in school vocational orientation, brochure
entitled: "Sure we parents are important – somehow!?
Aid for parents in
selecting occupation (not only) of daughters"; brochure for teachers entitled:
"Service book work with parents
on the process of selecting occupation (not
only) of girls" (Hamburg)

- Brochure providing information on IT occupations and technical occupation
fields for girls in lower and upper secondary school (Hesse)

- Co-funding a CD-ROM "Joblab" for vocational orientation in vocational areas
that are untypical for girls (Hesse)

- Equality as a task for schools entrenched in the Schools Act (Schulgesetz)
(Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)

- Pilot project entitled "Girls and boys – Accommodation and promotion
of their special possibilities in school" with documentation
and specialist
conferences on this topic (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)

- Wandering exhibition "Occupations are gender-neutral"

* on the orientation of girls in selecting an occupation

* motivating girls to expand their vocational spectrum

* on a critical debate of the "secret careers advisors" and the

economic and careers-related players (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)

- Regulations on the participation and special vocational promotion of women

- Setting the goal in the "Principles for action for allowances to establish
project-related training networks" that women and girls
are to receive
particular support for in-house vocational training (Saxony-Anhalt)

- Brochure entitled "Conflicts-Aggression-Violence Prevention and how to deal
with it constructively" (Principles and suggestions
for practical work in
schools) and continuation of the brochure entitled "Movement at school")
(Saxony-Anhalt)

- Implementation of a concept of the Land Government on "Equal opportunities
for girls and boys at schools" (Saxony-Anhalt)

- Equality commissioners at state school offices appointed and voluntary
equality commissioners elected at schools (Saxony-Anhalt)

- Development of teaching material and certificates of apprenticeship,
intended to counter the traditional role preconceptions (Saxony-Anhalt)

- Initiation of the project entitled "Women and men as fine artists at
schools" (Saxony-Anhalt)

- Annual award of a Land prize to promote equal opportunities for girls and
boys at schools (Saxony-Anhalt)

- Various projects within the framework of the initiative entitled "Online -
it's women's turn" (Schleswig-Holstein)

- Accompanying study on the implementation of the computer week for female
pupils (Schleswig-Holstein)

- Vocational information fair for girls in the IT field
(Schleswig-Holstein)

- Series of further training for "trustees" (in accordance with the
Thuringian Equality Act [ThürGleichG]) at schools in Thuringia
with the aim
of creating an awareness of the topic of equality and its implementation in
teaching (Thuringia)

- Inclusion of the "Equality aspects" criterion in the list of criteria
checked on approval of school books (Thuringia)

- Project on the vocational orientation of girls towards commercial and
technical occupations and scientific and technical studies:
Calendar "Vocational
opportunities for girls" (since 1999, now in its 3rd edition) (Thuringia)

- Fair "Women and business – more successful together": vocational
information day for pupils (2000) (Thuringia)

b) Working life, vocational promotion of women

- Regular reporting on the application and effectiveness of the Land Equality
Act and Ordinance on the Advancement of Women, taking
particular account of the
development of the employment situation of women in the Land administration
(Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg,
Hesse)

- Women's Funding Forum providing information to women starting up or already
in business to provide information and advice and to
offer an opportunity for
networking of women starting up in and already in business
(Baden-Württemberg, Berlin, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Western
Pomerania)

- Women's IT Forum, information on vocational opportunities for women in the
IT sector (Baden-Württemberg, Brandenburg)

- Women's commissioners in the area of application of the Land Equality Act
(Saarland, Schleswig Holstein)

- Land competition 2000 and 2002: "Equal opportunities for women and men in
companies" (Baden-Württemberg)

- Women's forum: Women in companies – an opportunity to innovate in the
economy (Baden-Württemberg)

- Brochure entitled "Women in Multimedia and IT vocations"
(Baden-Württemberg)

- Specific support offerings for women in the framework of the
Baden-Württemberg initiative for business start ups

- Female entrepreneurs fora (Baden-Württemberg)

- Study of gender-typical succession problems in small and medium-sized
enterprises (promotion programme on research into women)
(Baden-Württemberg)

- Mentoring initiative of the women's commissioner of the Land Government to
increase women's representation in managerial positions
and the project:
'Advancement promotion for mentoring of women' (Baden-Württemberg)

- Work aid to implement Art. 16-19 of the Bavarian Equality Act

- Activation of the knowledge of experienced female specialists and managers
in the Expert Advice Network (Berlin) gathered through
their own experience

- Implementation of measures to open up new fields of occupation and
employment, in particular in the field of new technologies for
the
diversification of the vocational spectrum (Berlin)

- Improving the competitive chances of women on the labour market by means of
future-orientated, innovative skill-building measures
adapted to the structural
changes within the economy (Berlin)

- Establishment of a "Gender advisory council to accompany the interventions
of the European Structural Fund in the Land of Berlin"
to create a discussion
forum between NGOs, the administration and players in labour market policy, as
well as academia (Berlin)

- Reform of the Berlin Land Equality Act (LGG), 2001. Issuance of the
Ordinance on Statistical Information and Analyses on the Employment
Structure
and on Appointments to Bodies for the Report on the Implementation of the Land
Equality Act (Equality Report Ordinance
– GleiBV) (Berlin)

- Networking of pilot projects for women with the advice offerings of the
crafts and establishment of a competence centre for "Women
and Crafts"
(Berlin)

- Publication of the hand-out for small and medium-sized enterprises
"Successful in competition and in the future with women. Practical
implementation of the Advancement of Women in Berlin" (Berlin)

- Interministerial committee on equality between women and men (IMA) chaired
by the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Health and
Women. Attended by:
equality commissioners of the supreme Land authorities and other interested
equality commissioners. Focus: Implementation
of the Land Equality Act in the
public administration of the Land (Brandenburg)

- Specialist conference on the topic of "Five years of the Land Equality Act
of the Land of Brandenburg" with documentation (published
December 1999)
(Brandenburg)

- Investigation of the experience with the advancement of women in selected
enterprises of the Land of Brandenburg – Brochure
entitled "Women-friendly
tenderisers preferred – When public contracts are linked to the employment
of women" (published by
the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Health and Women
of the Land of Brandenburg 2001) (Brandenburg)

- Mentoring – "Initiative of the Land of Brandenburg – successful
together for more women in managerial positions" (Brandenburg)

- Feasibility study: Gender Mainstreaming in the structural promotion of the
Land of Brandenburg

- Pilot projects "Quirl" and "Mobs" service agencies (Bremen)

- Creation of an Advice Network of Women (Bremen)

- Course and series of seminars entitled "Women - target-orientated and
successful at work" (Bremen)

- Programme for those starting up in business for women (fairs for female
entrepreneurs, advice, mentoring for women starting up in
business) (Hesse)

- Updating the 2002 Hesse Equal Rights Act – inclusion of elements of
the new administrative control and personnel development
(Hesse)

- Competition entitled "Women-friendly company of the year" (Hesse)

- Information and technology field – Educational and coaching offerings
for women (Hesse)

- Pilot project for employees on parental leave (Hesse)

- Brochure containing information on new IT occupations (Hesse)

- Launch of the Land initiative entitled "Management and responsibility
– future cooperation for women from business, politics
and the
administration". The initiative is a discussion forum and aims to increase
considerably the proportion of women in managerial
positions. (Hesse)

- Act on Equality of Women and Men in the public service of the Land of
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania dated 27.7.1998

* equality commissioners in all units in which a staff council must be
elected

* women's promotion plans in the public administration

* performance-related voting provisions in areas where women are
underrepresented

* reporting on the implementation of the Equality Act

* prohibition of insignificant employment in the public service

* prohibition of discrimination for those on child-raising leave and
part-time workers (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)

- Promotion plans for equality for the local authority employers
(Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)

- Regional associations as a representation of interest to improve the
situation of women on the labour market and structural development
(Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)

- FemiNet – Mobile Internet for women in rural areas to motivate them
to use information and communications technology to improve
their careers
opportunities (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)

- Programme of loans to women starting up in business (Mecklenburg-Western
Pomerania)

- Administrative provision on the Land Equality Act of Rhineland-Palatinate

- Network of the official equality commissioners (address file, Homepage
under construction) (Rhineland-Palatinate)

- "Equality at work", further studies with accredited qualification for
equality commissioners (Rhineland-Palatinate)

- Establishment of a female mentor project entitled "Mentoring in the
administration" (Rhineland-Palatinate)

- Making working hours more flexible in the Land administrations
(Saarland)

- Seminars, information events, regular female entrepreneurs' meetings as
well as a database of female entrepreneurs for women starting
up in business in
the Saar Online Business Set-Up Centre of the Ministry of Economics
(Saarland)

- Additional assistance for (single) parents (skill-building for men and
women starting up in business, recruitment assistance for
full-time jobs for
single parents) (Saxony-Anhalt)

- Award of a logo in context with the prize awarded in the Land competition
"Women-friendly company". The award entitles enterprises
to use the logo for
their own marketing and image advertising. (Saxony-Anhalt)

- Project entitled "Rural centre for women starting in business in the
Altmark" (Saxony-Anhalt)

- Questionnaires and fora on the topics of "Image of female freelancers" and
"Image of female entrepreneurs in the crafts" in Saxony-Anhalt

- Promotion of a mentoring project for female university graduates and women
starting their careers: "Women into management" (Saxony-Anhalt)

- Competition on equal opportunities through staff development "Every woman
deserves his chance. In your company too?" (Schleswig-Holstein)

- Pilot project "Service exchanges – (part-time) business start-ups and
new employment opportunities for women in the service
field in areas with a poor
structure" (Schleswig-Holstein)

- Initiative "It's the turn of women online" (Schleswig-Holstein)

- Mobil Internet café for women in rural areas
(Schleswig-Holstein)

- Telecoaching for women starting up in business (Schleswig-Holstein)

- Coupling the public grant of contracts and the promotion of women
(Brandenburg, Schleswig-Holstein)

- Periodical entitled "Akteur" (Player) of the Thuringian Ministry of
Economics, Labour and Infrastructure and of the European Social
Fund (ESF) with
a column on women's policy also entitled "Akteur" (Thuringia)

- "BBT Basis", surety programme of the Surety Bank for Small Entrepreneurs
(Thuringia)

- Specialist conference entitled "Family and voluntary work as a
qualification characteristic" for personnel specialists
(Baden-Württemberg)

- Information sheets for personnel officers and for applicants to include key
qualifications acquired outside of work - for example
in family and voluntary
work – in personnel decisions (Baden-Württemberg)

- Opening of kindergartens for children under three years and for school
children (Bavaria)

- Promotion of childcare in family self-help (Bavaria)

- Implementing a pilot project to promote day-care (Bavaria)

- Implementation of a joint project with an Association of the Metal and
Electrical Industry to expand crèche places (Bavaria)

- Right embodied in the Bavarian Civil Service Act for part-time working at
less than half the standard working hours (up to one-quarter
of the regular
working hours) for family reasons, if no operational reasons exist opposing this
(Bavaria)

- Accommodation of family competences within the Bavarian care guidelines
(Bavaria)

- Ordinance on the promotion of women and the reconciliation of work and
family in awarding public contracts (Women's Promotion Ordinance
– FFV)
dated 23 August 1999 (Berlin)

- Ideas competition – "Opportunities for family and work –
promotion of initiatives on the reconciliation of family and
work"
(Brandenburg)

- Event on the reconciliation of family and work in a European comparison
(Bremen)

- Aids for unit heads on establishing women's promotion plans for the public
service (Bremen)

- Guideline on teleworking for enterprises and their workers (North
Rhine-Westphalia)

- Targeted information (brochures, Internet presentations) for parents and
specifically for fathers, as well as on possibilities of
support within
companies and for the public service (North Rhine-Westphalia)

- "Initiative of women's centres of the Land of Brandenburg – Women and
Information technology", Women fit for the Web (Brandenburg)

- Pilot project entitled "Women returning to work – flexible and
family-orientated" of the Ministry for Labour, Social Affairs,
Health and Women
in Brandenburg in cooperation with Neuruppin Employment Office, Frankfurt/Oder
Chamber of Industry and Commerce
(Brandenburg)

- Labour market policy "Programme for the integration or reintegration of
women into working life", orientation seminars for women
returning to work
(Rhineland-Palatinate)

- Orientation and skill-building measures for single parents receiving social
assistance (Rhineland-Palatinate)

- Advice agencies for women returning to work (Rhineland-Palatinate)

- "Back to work" programme – Courses for vocational reintegration of
women and men after family times (Saxony)

- Higher promotion rates for women in general programmes (skill-building of
workers in measures of the public-promoted labour market,
skill-building and
integration measures in the framework programme on the vocational integration of
social assistance recipients,
promotion of training places, SAM guideline)
(Saxony-Anhalt)

- Model for better cooperation and networking of measures combating domestic
violence at district level (Berlin)

- Plan of Action for homeless women, development of recommendations
(Berlin)

- Rooms for witnesses, witness support and process accompaniment at
Tiergarten Local Court and Berlin Regional Court (Berlin)

- Promotion of the construction of the Berlin intervention agency against
domestic violence (Berlin)

- Planning development of a low-threshold overnight place for homeless women
(Berlin)

- Promotion of Donna Castella (placement of housing for women affected by
violence in the context of the protected market segment)
(Berlin)

- Pilot scheme on police removal of the offender from the dwelling. Draft of
a statute amending the General Security and Order Act
with the possibility for
police removal the offender from the dwelling for a period of up to 14 days
(Berlin)

- Guideline for the Land police when deployed in cases of domestic violence
and guideline for accompanied dealing in cases of domestic
violence (Berlin)

- Development of forms to apply for civil law protection orders in accordance
with the Act to Protect Against Violence (Berlin)

- Land Plan of Action on the fight against violence against women
(Brandenburg)

- Specialist conference entitled "What is the gender of violence? Violence
prevention in the age of gender mainstreaming" (Hamburg)

- Establishment of a Land working party on violence in the domestic domain
with the goal of developing recommendations to the Land
Government for a Land
Plan of Action and combining regional activities; until 2002 special focus on
the effects of domestic violence
on children, on questions of the implementation
of the Act to Protect Against Violence and the changed police practice
(Hesse)

- Workshop entitled "Legal requirements of the documentation of the health
consequences of violence against women" for physicians
and long-term care
services (Hesse)

- Police guideline with recommendations for conduct to the police to combat
domestic violence; at the end of 2001, start of the police
statistics for the
collation of cases of domestic violence; many basic and further training
measures on domestic violence for the
police, informing the police of the new
statutory situation in accordance with the Civil Court Act to Protect Against
Violence (Gewaltschutzgesetz)
(Hesse)

- Introduction of a special regulation regarding removal by the police in the
event of domestic violence in the Land Act on Security
and Order (Hesse)

- Ensuring the availability of female police officers for immediate
intervention as well as for investigating domestic violence (Hesse)

- Special departments for prosecution of criminal offences against sexual
self-determination, and also in individual cases of domestic
violence in the
public prosecution offices at Local and other Courts (Hesse)

- Overall basic supply by the promotion of 34 women's refuges, 12 women's
emergency call and advice centres, as well as an additional
coordination agency
for the women's emergency call centre (Hesse)

- Violence screening as part of systematic health care for women at risk of
violence. Creating effective cooperation between healthcare
and assistance
facilities (Hesse)

- Special departments on Domestic Violence at the public prosecution offices
(Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)

- Priority given to accommodation of inhabitants of women's refuges in
placing in council housing (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)

- Basis for entitlement of the police in the security and order network (SOG)
on removal for up to 14 days (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)

- Four intervention agencies offering a link between state intervention
agencies (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)

- Guideline for the Land police in dealing with cases of domestic violence
(Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)

- Six rooms for witnesses at the four Regional Courts and two Local Courts
(Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)

- Further expansion of the infrastructure on overall basic supply by
promoting another five (total of 54) women's advice agencies
(as on 2002) (North
Rhine-Westphalia)

- Report of the Land Government on measures and initiatives of the Land
Government, continuation planned in 2004 (North Rhine-Westphalia)

- Round table on the fight against violence against women with
representatives of the Ministries of the Interior, Justice, Labour,
and Social
Affairs and Women, representatives of autonomous women's projects, Land working
party on equality commissioners and council
for victims (including publication
of a paper on the topic of "Domestic violence") (North Rhine-Westphalia)

- Interministerial working party on "domestic violence" (North
Rhine-Westphalia)

- Basis for empowerment for the police to remove from dwellings in cases of
domestic violence (North Rhine-Westphalia)

- Guideline for doctors on the recognition of violent acts in the domestic
area (Saxony-Anhalt)

- Grant of contract regarding "Supply and demand of residential and
non-residential psychotherapy care possibilities for the victims
of sexualised
abuse" (Saxony-Anhalt)

- Empirical study on the current situation of people with a disability in
Saxony-Anhalt. Including gender-specific differentiation
in the field of
violence experienced (Saxony-Anhalt)

- Study on the experience of sexual violence against women in Saxony-Anhalt
from the point of view of specialists (Saxony-Anhalt)

- Establishment of special departments to prosecute criminal offences against
sexual self-determination at Halle and Stendal public
prosecution offices
(Saxony-Anhalt)

- Cooperation and intervention concept in the fight against domestic violence
against women (KIK [Cooperation and Intervention Concept]
Schleswig-Holstein)
including various regions (districts, towns not associated with a county) with
their own coordination (Schleswig-Holstein)

- Promotion of the publication of mother-tongue information sheets for
victims of trafficking in human beings (Baden-Württemberg)

- Drafting an instruction regarding section 19 of the Aliens Act within
the framework of the Berlin Intervention Project against Domestic
Violence (BIG
e.V. 1999) (Berlin)

- Agreement with the Berlin social welfare offices regarding visiting
modalities and application of discretion in providing benefits
in accordance
with the Act on Benefits for Asylum-Seekers (Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz) for
female witnesses in proceedings relating
to trafficking in human beings (October
2001) (Berlin)

- Advice body for hardship cases under the law on aliens (Berlin)

- Promotion of 19 female migrants' projects, including three for women
affected by trafficking in women (Berlin)

- Establishment of an intercultural women's refuge (2000) (Berlin)

- Berlin specialist commission on trafficking in women (Berlin)

- Specialist conference and documentation entitled "European Strategies on
the Prevention and Suppression of Trafficking in Women"
on 25/26.11.1998 and
documentation (Berlin)

- Refuge for women affected by trafficking in women from Central and Eastern
Europe 1999 (Berlin)

- Women's infrastructure agency to advise and care for victims of trafficking
in women (Berlin)

- Information sheet "Women as goods" on trafficking in women (Berlin)

- Specialist advice agency called Belladonna "Protection of and for victims
of trafficking in human beings" (Brandenburg)

- Decree on section 19 of the Aliens Act (independent right of residence
of the spouse in special hardship cases) in anticipation
of the version
applicable since May 2000 (Bremen)

- Decree on the temporary suspension of deportation of victims of trafficking
in human beings/trafficking in women (Bremen)

- Event on trafficking in women and forced prostitution and on the situation
of the victim, in particular also on the matter of care
(Bremen)

- Plans to improve the situation of the victims of trafficking in women and
forced prostitution (Bremen)

- Promotion of the coordination agency on trafficking in women KOOFRA
(Hamburg)

- Management of the roundtable on the suppression of trafficking in human
beings (Hesse)

- Circular letters on protection against deportation of women affected by
trafficking in human beings, on their care, on funding their
return journeys and
to coordinate cooperation between the authorities (North Rhine-Westphalia)

- Promotion of the "SOLWODI" advice agency for foreign women who have fallen
foul of trafficking in women and forced prostitution
(Rhineland-Palatinate)

- Project on psychosocial advice and care of victim/witnesses in proceedings
relating to trafficking in human beings (Rhineland-Palatinate)

- Promotion of the contact and advice agency for women from Central and
Eastern Europe – KOBRA (Saxony)

- House for female refugees provided for traumatised refugee women travelling
alone and their children (Saxony-Anhalt)

- Scientific study on the situation of women in the Ansbach rural district
(Bavaria)

- Agreements on the further realisation of the concept of equal opportunities
for women at the Berlin institutions of higher education
(Berlin)

- Berlin Land programme research into women (until 2000) (Berlin)

- Berlin Programme to promote equal opportunities for women in research and
teaching (since 2001) (Berlin)

- Working party of Berlin research into women's centres at institutions of
higher education (Berlin)

- Margherita von Brentano Prize of the Free University of Berlin for
especially excellent projects and measures to promote women or
research into
women (Berlin)

- Strengthening the position of women and equality commissioners at
institutions of higher education via a series of individual provisions
in the
Brandenburg Act on Higher Education Institutes applicable since May 1999:
(Brandenburg)

- Proportion of women in all institutions of higher education and in the Land
Council on institutions of higher education is to be
at least one-third, and at
least 40 percent in appeal commissions for the appointment of professors
(Brandenburg)

- Orientation of the state promotion on progress in meeting the equality
mandate (Brandenburg)

- Cooperation of the equal opportunities commissioners at the institutions of
higher education in agreed goals, structure and staffing
decisions, as well as
in drafting and monitoring women's advancement guidelines and plans
(Brandenburg)

- Target instructions in the institutions of higher education development
plan to 2001 – including an increase in the proportion
of women among
newly appointed professors to 25 % (Brandenburg)

- Brochure entitled "Mentoring – Initiatives and measures for equal
opportunities for women in the field of science". The brochure
documents the
results of a survey in the Federation and the Länder in August 2001
(Hesse)

- Dissemination of information material on the topic of "Promotion of women
and grant of funds to institutions of higher education"
(North
Rhine-Westphalia)

- Studies and conferences on research into women (North Rhine-Westphalia)

- Support of research into women's projects and events (North
Rhine-Westphalia)

- Discussion circles, networks ("Research into women network" of 38 female
scientists) and research activities into women and on institutionalising
research into women (North Rhine-Westphalia)

- Statutory entrenching of the appointment of equality commissioners at
institutions of higher education and the elimination of existing
disadvantages
for female staff at institutions of higher education - Saxon Act on Higher
Education - (Saxony)

- Women's advancement plans to improve the conditions for women in science
(Saxony)

- Reintegration grant for women and men who have interrupted their doctoral
studies and candidacy for qualification as higher education
lecturers because of
family duties (Saxony)

- Programme to promote equal opportunities of women in research and teaching
in the University Science Programme (HWP) (Saxony)

- Cooperation in the collegiate between institutions of higher
education/vocational academy and the business community of the Free
State of
Saxony (Saxony)

- Accompaniment of the studies "Study orientation school – institution
of higher education – business community" and "Interface
problems for
grammar school – Technical and natural science education at Universities
and Technical Colleges" (Saxony)

- Cooperation with the Land Conference of equality commissioners at
institutions of higher education and networking of the equality
commissioners at
the institutions of higher education (Saxony)

- Creation of a professorship partly designated for research into women
(Saxony-Anhalt)

- Research grants on the promotion of young female scientists (from 2000
– also contains candidacy for qualification as higher
education lecturers,
as well as doctoral studies and junior professorships) (Saxony-Anhalt)

- Women's advancement plans and guidelines for increasing the proportion of
women among scientific staff (Thuringia)

- Application of the Gender Mainstreaming principle to planning and measures
at institutions of higher education in order to make
a contribution to quality
assurance, increase performance and competition (Thuringia)

- Kindergartens for students' children (Erfurt-Ilmenau and Jena-Weimar
Students Unions) (Thuringia)

- Support of advice projects for female and male pupils (Thuringian
Coordination agency for Natural Science and Technology) (Thuringia)

- Women-orientated urban planning and city/district development – a
precondition for inclusion in EU promotion programmes such
as "Urban I and II"-
(Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony-Anhalt,
Thuringia)

- Promotion of a study on women-adapted regional planning
(Baden-Württemberg)

- Promotion of a study on the availability of retail outlets near to home
(Baden-Württemberg)

- Accommodating women's concerns in the Hesse Land Planning Act, and
entrenching the involvement of the Land working party of women's commissioners
of the local authorities and districts in the
regional assemblies (Hesse)

- Land competition – Family-friendly city (Hesse)

- Entrenching women's concerns in the Land development plan of the Land of
Hesse 2002 (Hesse)

- Accommodating women's concerns in regional plans (Hesse)

- Accommodating women's concerns in the Act on Local Passenger Transport
(ÖPNV-Gesetz) (Hesse)

- Brochure entitled "Urban land-use planning from the point of view of women"
and brochures on Hesse projects on women-friendly housing
(Hesse)

- Housing project women-friendly housing in conversion stocks (Hesse)

- Mobility requirements of women as a criterion of need for the planning of
local passenger transport (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)

- Transport concept for women, accommodating women's concerns in the Land
statutes on local passenger transport (North Rhine-Westphalia)

- Priority to the award of publicly-promoted council housing et al to single
parents and women from women's refuges - since 1990 (North
Rhine-Westphalia)

- Publication of an information document on housing policy suited to women
and families ("Planning together, being neighbourly –
Outlook of sound
housing policy for women and families in North Rhine-Westphalia (North
Rhine-Westphalia)

- Statutory provision on the appointment and involvement of local women's and
equality commissioners (statutory obligation incumbent
on towns, local
authorities and districts with more than 10,000 inhabitants, for the full-time
appointment of local authority equality
commissioners) (North Rhine-Westphalia,
Schleswig-Holstein)

- Promotion of the Registry of the Land Working Party of Local Women's
Offices and Equal Opportunities Boards (North Rhine-Westphalia,
Saxony)

- Network agency for local equality commissioners in Rhineland-Palatinate

- Statutory regulation in the Municipality and Rural District Ordinance on
the Establishment of Local Equal Opportunity Boards (Gemeinde-
und
Landkreisverordnung zur Einrichtung von kommunalen Gleichstellungsstellen) and
issuance administrative provisions on the tasks
of the local equality agencies
(Rhineland-Palatinate)

- Regulation in the Land Equality Act to establish local equal opportunity
boards within the local authority (Saarland)

- Cooperation with equality commissioners (including specialist supervision)
the president of the regional administration and the
Land Working Party of local
equality commissioners (Saxony)

- Support for the Land conferences for the Land working party of local
equality commissioners (Saxony)

- Promotion of local equality commissioners (Saxony)

- Manual for local equality work in Saxony, ed. by the State Ministry for
Equality of Women and Men (Saxony)

- Promotion of the Saxon women's week (Saxony)

- Specialist events on quality development and assurance in Saxon women's
projects (Saxony)

- Development of further training concepts and implementation of further
training measures for equality commissioners (Bremen, Mecklenburg-Western
Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland)

- Support for the work of the local equality commissioners by publishing
manuals, other publications, joint events and activity weeks,
networking offers
(Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein)

- Cooperation agreement on modernisation of the administration between ZGF
Bremerhaven, ÖTV, combined staff council, Magistrate
of the City of
Bremerhaven (Bremen)

k) Promotion of girls

- Recommendations for the promotion of work with girls in youth promotion, in
accordance with the Act on Assistance for Children and
Youth Assistance (Bremen,
Thuringia)

- Promotion of Land agencies on work with girls (Baden-Württemberg,
Hesse, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia)

- Promotion of projects, events, activities, brochures for girls in the
framework of extra-mural youth work and youth social work
(Bremen, North
Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland)

- Promotion of regional girls' days (Bavaria, Hesse, Thuringia)

- Projects on information and communication technologies for girls
(Baden-Württemberg)

- Promotion of work with children and young people among girls and young
women: projects and events for girls and young women, autonomous
girls' centres
in rural areas, autonomous girls' house of the "Lotta" association in Kiel
(Schleswig-Holstein)

- Further training and brochures for multipliers, in particular building
blocks of further training for introduction to work with
girls and boys (1999
and 2000), specialist conferences on the situation of girls in crisis
situations between institutional homes,
the street and psychiatry (1998 –
2001) (Schleswig-Holstein)

- Promotion of the pilot project "FOR JU" – further training for girls
and youth assistance suited to young people (Schleswig-Holstein)

- Agency of the Land working party "Girls and young women in youth
assistance" (Schleswig-Holstein)

- Drafting specialist recommendations on work with girls in Thuringia
(resolution of the Land Youth Assistance Committee dated Feb.
2001)
(Thuringia)

- Further training offerings on work with girls for cooperation in
institutions for child and youth assistance (Thuringia)

- Specialist conference entitled "Work with girls in Thuringia" (May 2001)
and drafting of a documentation on it by the end of the
year (Thuringia)

- Work aids enabling drafts of statutes and ordinances to be drafted in
conformity to legal form serving the linguistic equality of
men and women (Dec.
1997) (Thuringia)

m) Women's non-governmental organisations

- Cooperation with and promotion of women's organisations, women's networks,
women's groups and initiatives, women's associations
and Land working parties,
including the promotion of projects (Baden-Württemberg, Mecklenburg-Western
Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia,
Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony)

- Promotion of women's centres (North Rhine-Westphalia)

- Promotion of 47 women's communication centres (Thuringia)

n) Health

- Project: Prevention of eating disorders (Baden-Württemberg)

- Baden-Württemberg Women's health report

- Initiative on early recognition of cancer and self-examination of the
breast (Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland)

- Accompaniment and control of the certification process for doctors
specialised in mammography, drafting disease management programmes
for breast
cancer diseases (Berlin)

- Concerted action: Integration of women's health into the Berlin health
system (clinics, non-hospital doctors, public health service
(legal reform),
administrations, etc., here in particular the topic of healthcare for women
affected by violence (Berlin)

- Specialist conference: Health knows no genders? – On the health of
women and girls (Berlin)

- Initiation of certified further training for doctors on "Menopause from a
multidisciplinary point of view" (Bremen)

- Publication of the advice leaflet entitled "Pregnant in Bremen and
Bremerhaven" (Bremen)

- Development of certified further training for doctors on the topic of
"Experience of sexual violence as a cause of unspecific physical
complaints
among women and girls"; publication of the documentation of the same name
(Bremen)

- Project on the implementation of the gender aspect in the sphere of
healthcare (Hesse)

- Networking of institutions, projects and groups on the topic of "Women's
health" (Hesse)

- Project to support the self-competence of women in the health sphere
(Hesse)

- Planning of a women's health centre for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

- Women's Health working party of the Land Government (Mecklenburg-Western
Pomerania)

- Women's health centres (Lower Saxony)

- Promotion of a network for "Women/girls and health" (Lower Saxony)

- Publication of a Land health report on the topic of "Health of women and
men" (2000) (North Rhine-Westphalia)

- Treatment of the topic "Gender-specific aspects of health and illness" in
the framework of the Land health conference 2001 (North
Rhine-Westphalia)

- Participation of the local equality commissioners in the local health
conferences (North Rhine-Westphalia)

- Pan-Land Activity Weeks of the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Women's
Affairs with the local equality commissioners on the topic
of "Women and health"
(2001) (North Rhine-Westphalia)

- "Concerted action against breast cancer" (Initiative of the Land Women's
and Health Ministries and of parties in the healthcare
system) (North
Rhine-Westphalia)

- Promotion of a coordination agency "Women and health" (pilot project) and
of two women's health centres, (Hagazussa / Cologne and
the International Centre
for Women's Health / Bad Salzuflen) (North Rhine-Westphalia)

- "Concerted action against breast cancer" (Initiative of the Land Women's
and Health Ministries and of parties in the healthcare
system) (North
Rhine-Westphalia)

- Promotion of the specialist Land agency "Women and addiction– Bella
Donna" and women-specific measures to implement the Land
programme against
addiction (e.g. in addiction and drug advice) (North Rhine-Westphalia)

- Support of gay and lesbian structures by the promotion of groups,
associations, Land associations and projects on the advice, information,
networking and public relations work (North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony-Anhalt)

- Promotion the Land coordination agency for Lesbian and Gay Concerns in the
Land of Brandenburg (Brandenburg)

- Promotion of the annual one-week tour through the towns of Brandenburg on
the occasion of the Christopher Street Day under the patronage
of the Minister
of Labour, Social Affairs, Health and Women (Brandenburg)

- Establishment of a section in the office of the Senator for Labour, Women,
Youth, Health and Social Affairs in the area "Young people"
with the work focus
"Same-sex lifestyles" (Bremen)

- Measures to "Suppress violence and discrimination against lesbians and gays
and promote equal opportunities between homosexual and
heterosexual ways of life
in Schleswig-Holstein" (Schleswig-Holstein)

- Promotion of female artists through women's culture conferences, music
symposium for young women, business start-up seminars and
female mentor project
(Rhineland-Palatinate)

- "Wilhelmine Reichard - women go into the air" – sportswomen's
festival opened by Minister of State Christine Weber on 21 March
2002 on
the occasion of International Women's Day (Saxony)

- Promotion of the publication entitled "Head up, legs down and closed. Women
exercise themselves free", drafted by Diana Richter
on the occasion of the 31st
German Gymnastics Festival 2002 in Leipzig (Saxony)

- Support for the "Politea" exhibition (an outline of German history from
1945 to the present day from a women's perspective. The
focus is on women from
both the East and the West) (Saxony)

- House for grant recipients in Salzwedel (grant to promote an artist's
project in the shape of a cheap one-year stay in an artists'
house, linked with
a grant for travel and material costs) (Saxony-Anhalt)

q) Women with disabilities

- Network of and for women and girls with disabilities in Bavaria

- Network of and for girls and women with disabilities (Berlin)

- Advice for girls and women with disabilities in Berlin

- Concept to include violence-prevention provisions in the quality assurance
assessment of the assistance facilities for people with
disabilities
(implementation phase) (Berlin)

- Working party on prevention and intervention in the case of sexual violence
towards girls and women with (mental) illness in (and
outside) the family
(Berlin)

- Projects on self-assertion and self-defence for girls and women with
disabilities (Berlin)

- Establishment of a project agency for women with disabilities (Bremen)

- Photograph exhibition entitled "Women with Disabilities" (Bremen)

- Network for women with disabilities

Support for the Hesse coordination office for women with disabilities
(Hesse)

- Brochure entitled "The situation of women with disabilities in
accommodation facilities providing assistance for people with disabilities
in
Hesse" (Hesse)

- Proportional involvement of women in the integration promotion council
(Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)

- Advice for women with disabilities in Lower Saxony (Lower Saxony)

- Study entitled "Teleworking – an opportunity for women with and
without disabilities?!" (North Rhine-Westphalia)

- Promotion of pilot projects for women and girls with disabilities, such as
projects for assistance, etc. (North Rhine-Westphalia)

- Measures to research and support women with disabilities, such as a report
on the situation of women with disabilities in North
Rhine-Westphalia (North
Rhine-Westphalia)

- Events for women and girls with disabilities (North Rhine-Westphalia)

- Public relations work (brochure) (North Rhine-Westphalia)

- KOBRA coordination and advice agency for women with disabilities in
Rhineland-Palatinate

- Document entitled "Women with disabilities in the Free State of Saxony"
(Saxony)

- Gender-specific differentiation regarding violence experienced, in the
framework of the empirical survey on the situation of people
with disabilities
in Saxony-Anhalt

- Implementation of a workshop in the framework of the 1999 specialist
women's forum on the situation of women with disabilities in
Saxony-Anhalt

- Promotion of the "Mixed Pickles" networking and coordination office for
women with and without disabilities (Schleswig-Holstein)

r) Women and bodies

- Regulation for appointments to bodies in the Land Equality Act of
Rhineland-Palatinate (Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate)

- Third bodies report regarding the representation of women in bodies on
appointments on which the Land Government or the Land Parliament
have an
influence (Baden-Württemberg)

- Analysis of the bodies reports, recommendations for action
(Baden-Württemberg)

- Nationwide specialist event of the Senate Administrations responsible for
policy on women concerning the further development of
the participation of women
in decision-making bodies (March 2001) (Berlin)

- Regulation on equal appointment to the Broadcasting Council and the
Administrative Council of the Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting
Company in the
Interstate Agreement on the Establishment of a Joint Broadcasting Company of the
Länder of Berlin and Brandenburg
(Brandenburg)

- Regulation on equal appointment to the bodies and on the accommodation of
women in the shaping of proposals for the seconding bodies,
authorities, units
and other facilities of the Land in appointing, appointing or nominating body
members within and outside the Land
administration in the Land Equality Act
(Brandenburg)

- Target regulation in the Land Equality Act (LGG), in accordance with which
commissions, advisory councils, administrative and supervisory
councils, as well
as other bodies are to be appointed to in order to achieve equal gender
participation, corresponding regulations
for the secondment of individuals to
bodies, duty to report (section 12 of the Land Equality Act, since 1999)
(North Rhine-Westphalia)

- Establishment of a file of female experts for potential appointment to
bodies (Rhineland-Palatinate)

- Workshops on the topic of "Women and bodies" (Rhineland-Palatinate)

- Duty for all Land and local authority units, as well as all other legal
persons subjected to the legal supervision of the Free State
of Saxony under
public law, to work towards equal participation of women and men (cf.
section 15 of the Saxony Promotion of Women
Act (SächsFFG) dated
31.03.1994 (Saxon Law Gazette [SächsGVBl.] p. 684)) (Saxony)

- Building up a file of female experts (Saxony-Anhalt)

- Regulation on appointments to bodies, the members of which are nominated or
seconded by public administration organisations (Schleswig-Holstein)

- Campaign for the 1999 local elections "Politics without women are missing
the better half" with accompanying material including
flags, sweatshirts,
posters, a data leaflet on the representation of women in the Parliaments and a
women's policy historical calendar
(Baden-Württemberg)

- Promotion of skill-building for women on a voluntary basis
(Rhineland-Palatinate)

- Allocations for women's policy umbrella associations, Land working parties,
as well as for coordination and advice agencies for
women (Saxony)

- Guideline on the Granting of Allowances for the Promotion of Equal
Opportunities of Women and Men dated 19.6.2001. It governs the
promotion of
women's measures and women's projects, as well as the strengthening of the work
of women in rural areas (Saxony)

- "Ten years of equality policy in the Free State of Saxony", specialist
government declaration by the Minister of State for Equality
of Women and Men,
Christine Weber, on 4 April 2001 before the Saxon Land Parliament (drafting
of a protocol). (Saxony)

- "Ten years of equality policy in the Free State of Saxony –
Development of the situation of women from 1990 to 2000", ed.
by the
Minister of State for Equality of Women and Men (Saxony)

- Project entitled "Implementation of measures to promote women in the
framework of agreed goals and performance" (Hamburg)

- Introduction of gender mainstreaming in the Land Government in Hesse,
including for instance:

Event launched by the Hesse Prime Minister and the Hesse Social Ministry on
the topic of "Gender Mainstreaming as a future-orientated
strategy of Equality
Policy", 2001 in Wiesbaden

Event on the topic of "Gender mainstreaming – a modern strategy to
implement equal opportunities for women" in the framework
of the 11th specialist
conference entitled "Lobby for a women's network"

- Implementation of gender mainstreaming in the North Rhine-Westphalia-EU
labour market and structural policy (Objectives 2 and 3)
by
entrenching gender mainstreaming at programme level, in case of specific
measures and by appropriate accompanying structures and
programme controlling
(North Rhine-Westphalia)

- Research on gender mainstreaming: (Centre for Research on Women and Gender
at the University of Leipzig, Gender Studies Coordination
Agency (KoGenS) at the
Evangelical Institution of Higher Education for Social Work in Dresden, project
group "Gender relationships
in research and training" at the Technical
University of Dresden) (Saxony)

- Gender mainstreaming introduced as one of the guiding values (Community
objectives) in the Saxon Operational Programme for the EU
Structural Fund
promotion and the Interreg III A Community initiative (Saxony)

- Amendment of the regulations on cabinet work related to gender
mainstreaming in August 2002 (Saxony)

- Drafting a "Concept to implement gender mainstreaming at different levels
and in various fields across Saxony" under construction
until November 2002;
followed by a pilot trial at rural district and ministerial level" (Saxony)

- Plan for implementation of the Land Government dated 2.5.2000
(Saxony-Anhalt)

- Promotion of the "(GISA) Gender Institute" (Saxony-Anhalt)

- Further training and organisational development projects to implement the
gender mainstreaming concept (Saxony-Anhalt)

A representative survey on the interests of women and their expectations of
the political sphere carried out by the Allensbach Institute
for Demoscopy
commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Consumer Protection, Food and
Agriculture, March 2000

Measures by the Federal Government to improve equality of women and men

The new Federal Act on Equal Opportunities between Women and Men in the
Federal Administration and in the Courts of the Federation
(Gesetz zur
Gleichstellung von Frauen und Männern in der Bundesverwaltung und in den
Gerichten des Bundes)

Neuer Aufbruch in der Gleichstellungspolitik, leaflet

Gleichstellung im Aufwind – Perspektiven einer modernen
Gleichstellungspolitik. Documentation of the specialist congress of the
women's commissioners of the Federation on 22 and 23 March 2000

Results of ongoing cooperation between the Federal Ministry for Family
Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and the German Chamber
of Industry and
Commerce (DIHK), the Central Association of the German Crafts Trades (ZDH) and
the German Equalisation Bank (DtA).

Frauen im Kultur- und Medienbetrieb III

Fakten zu Berufssituation und Qualifizierung

Women in the Arts and Media III

A report by the Centre for Cultural Research for the Federal Ministry for
Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, kultur
& wissenschaft,
Vol. 19

Trotz Fleiß – keinen Preis?

Frauen in der individuellen Künstlerförderung II

A report by the Centre for Cultural Research for the Federal Ministry for
Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, kultur
& wissenschaft,
Vol. 20

CHANGE / CHANCE Community initiative. Publication of the research of the
German Forum of Women Starting up in Business on the topic
of:
"Gründung, Übernahme und Leitung von Unternehmen durch Frauen"
(No. 76/2000)

Das neue Kindschaftsrecht. Questions and answers on the law of
parentage, on the law of parental custody, on the law of access, on the law
relating to names
and on the new provisions in court procedure